VIDEO

Just last February, the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro was the basis for a two-hour NBC movie starring Karl Malden and Lee Grant. Now comes word from Rome that the terrorism story is being turned into another television drama. In the $9-million production for Italian television, Burt Lancaster plays wheelchair-bound Jewish American Leon Klinghoffer, who was shot dead and dumped in the sea by his Palestinian captors. Eva Marie Saint is cast as Klinghoffer’s wife, Marilyn. State television channel RAI-Due says the production, which has joint Italian, French and U.S. funding, is a two-part, three-hour film.