Stone unturned.

(From The Northern Echo)

Byline: Steve Pratt

Oliver Stone tells Steve Pratt how he drew on his military background in Vietnam to make controversial movie World Trade Center - and why he didn't just want to make a 'popcorn movie' out of 9/11 WILL Jimeno's initial reaction to his 9/11 experiences being turned into a movie was to say he didn't want to do it. "I couldn't see how Hollywood would take our story and put it on the big screen. I was hesitant about it, " he admits. The story of how Jimeno and fellow police officer John McLoughlin were pulled from the rubble after being buried 20ft below the surface for more than 12 hours is a remarkable one. But neither felt comfortable when approached about being the focus of a big movie dealing with the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. They were two of only 20 people rescued from beneath the piles of concrete slabs and twisted metal after the Twin Towers collapsed. Meetings with producers and a screenwriter eased their fears. Then, when he heard that Oliver Stone - controversial director of JFK, Platoon, Nixon, Natural Born Killers and Alexander - was to helm the project, Jimeno realised that this uncompromising director was the right man for the job. "We knew that this had the potential to be a great film. Whether you love or hate this man - and I love him - he stands up for what he believes in, says Jimeno, joining Stone for the London launch of the movie World Trade Center. "After we saw the completed version of the film for the first time, I walked out and gave him a big hug and kiss, and told him he'd kept his word to me - he'd done good for America and for the world. I hope people see Oliver as a talented director who believes in something and goes forward with that." Sergeant John McLoughlin (played on screen by Nicolas Cage) and Jimeno (Michael Pena) were among five men from the Port Authority Police Department who went into the buildings and were trapped when the towers collapsed. Lying injured 20ft below the rubble field, they couldn't see each other but could hear each other and kept each other alive talking about their lives and families until rescue arrived. The film cuts between the trapped men, their families waiting for news and the rescuers. Stone has received some of the best reviews of an often-stormy career for World Trade Center. "It was a minefield that could have blown up in our face, " he admits. "We had political considerations in New York. The producers spent hours and hours having dozens of meetings with all kinds of groups, widows groups, political groups. "We shot in New York but there were many limitations. And then, of course, technically we depended on Will and John and the rescuers for very complicated technical advice." Stone was aware that 9/11 events looked just like a movie, remembering that on the day itself people were comparing it to a Jerry Bruckheimer movie, a reference to the producer specialising in big budget action movies. Making a film like that was precisely what Stone didn't want to do. "I'm sure there could be a Towering Inferno made out of this, they could make a hell of an exciting movie. It would probably be a big popcorn movie, " he says. "But the beauty of this, and the originality of it, was that it was apolitical, a microcosmic story. Going into Noah's Ark with the whole human race getting sucked down and then out of the belly of the whale, so to speak, these two are spit back. Only 20 survivors, ...