'Zero Dark Thirty' Filmmakers Mum on Intelligence Leaks

The upcoming film about the successful hunt for Osama bin Laden has been hounded by accusations the project was conceived as a political gift to President Barack Obama.

What Obama booster wouldn’t want to see a film touting the president’s loudest talking point at the height of election season?

Some of the criticism surrounding the film, dubbed “Zero Dark Thirty,” died down when the film’s studio switched its release date from October to December – well after the Nov. 6 presidential elections. That didn’t answer charges that the Obama administration leaked sensitive information to the filmmakers to potentially help frame the narrative.

So you’d think when “Zero Dark Thirty” director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the intelligence imbroglio they would vociferously deny the charges.

Not quite.

Both essentially clammed up. And when EW asked Boal if he interviewed President Obama as research for the film he said with a laugh, “next.”