Lynch withdraws co-operation for NBC film

Just one day after the NBC television network announced the cast for its film about the ordeal of Army Private Jessica Lynch, Lynch has withdrawn her co-operation.

Her family members scuttled the plan, under which Lynch would have been paid an undisclosed fee for her participation in the film, reports the New York Times.

The family announced they want Jessica’s authorised story told first in a book to be published before the end of the year.

Production was due to have started in two weeks on the film about the West Virginia soldier rescued from Iraq, but now the future of the project is unclear.

NBC executives declined to comment, but one executive told the newspaper the network was disappointed.

The network had chosen Canadian actress Laura Regan, who starred in the 2002 thriller They and had small parts in Someone Like You and Unbreakable, to play Lynch.

Nicholas Guilak was to have portrayed Mohammed Odeh-Al-Rehaief, the Iraqi lawyer who located Lynch for the US military and Crystle Lightning was cast as Lori Piestewa, Lynch’s friend and fellow solider who died in the same Iraqi hospital where Lynch was found.