Jafar Panahi Was Slated To Helm An Adaptation Of ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ For Steve Zaillian And Sony

Here’s to pouring salt on an uncalled for wound.

For those who don’t know, Jafar Panahi is a beloved Iranian filmmaker who, for the past few years, has found himself the victim of a unjustified jail sentence following his arrest for making films opposing the ruling party in his native country.   Banned from   making a film for 20 years, the director had for the most part stayed in his homeland to make his films.   However, that may not have been the case for long.

Time Out London reveals (via The Playlist) that the director had   been tapped to direct an adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, from a script penned by The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo scribe Steve Zaillian. The script was written with the hopes of Panahi joining the project, and prior to his arrest, Panahi had apparently ‘wanted to do it.’

Hopefully, following what we can only hope to be a quick release soon, Panahi will once again be able to make films, and one day get around to making this piece, because it’s a damn good fit. News surrounding his prison term hasn’t been very fluid as of late, but we can still hold out hope that he’ll find a quick, and safe, release here soon. Let the Iranian government know that this is a wrongful and unjust jailing, and call for the filmmaker’s release by heading over to Amnesty International.

Source Time Out London / The Playlist