Media Decoder: Documentary Planned on Malala Yousafzai, Girl Shot by Taliban

Documentary Planned on Malala Yousafzai, Girl Shot by Taliban

LOS ANGELES â€" What comes after surviving being shot in the head, turning 16 and addressing the United Nations? Having a famous documentarian make a movie about it all.

Malala Yousafzai, the young Pakistani education advocate who addressed the United Nations General Assembly last Friday, her 16th birthday, is being filmed by Davis Guggenheim, who is known for projects like “Waiting for Superman” and “An Inconvenient Truth.”

But only if he can keep up with her.

Last October, Ms. Yousafzai was shot by Taliban gunmen for advocating education for girls and sharing her views with Western media outlets. She survived serious wounds to the head and neck. Much of the world cheered her on, and Gordon Brown, the U.N.’s special envoy for education, helped bring her to New York for her address. Mr. Guggenheim has aligned with two Hollywood producers, Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald, and a substantial financier, Image Nation of Abu Dhabi, for a documentary about her life and work. Speaking by telephone last week, Mr. Parkes said he and Ms. MacDonald, his wife and business partner, had considered making a dramatic film based on a coming memoir by Ms. Yousafzai. But, after meeting her in Britain this year, they decided otherwise.

“It didn’t seem right; no one is ever going to be able to portray this extraordinary young girl,” Mr. Parkes said. The producers, who had made a film based on “The Kite Runner,” a novel by Khaled Hosseini about the Taliban in Afghanistan, quickly connected with Mr. Guggenheim, who has focused on education.

Financing came easily, Mr. Parkes said. His production company works closely with Image Nation. It sounds like the stuff of which Oscar contenders are made. Mr. Guggenheim, after all, won an Academy Award for “An Inconvenient Truth” in 2007.

But Ms. Yousafzai’s story will not be in the next Oscar race. The finished film is about 18 months away, Mr. Parkes said. And by then, Ms. Yousafzai, who has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, is likely to have provided a Hollywood ending.