NBC to make movie about POW Jessica Lynch
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Pfcs. Jessica Lynch, left, and Lori Piestewa are shown at Fort Bliss, Texas, in this photo from February.
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LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- The story of Jessica Lynch -- the U.S. soldier taken prisoner in Iraq and rescued in a daring operation -- is to be made into a television movie, with or without her family selling her story.
NBC television said Thursday it was starting work on a script about the 19-year-old POW, who has become the most human American face of both the heroism and horror of the Iraq war.
"Like the rest of America, we shared in the collective thrill of witnessing the heroic and dramatic rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch. Her inspiring story is one that provides a message of hope despite great odds," the network said in a statement.
Lynch is recovering from multiple wounds in a U.S. military hospital in Germany following her rescue last week in a night-time raid from a hospital in the southern Iraqi town of Nassiriya. She had spent nine days listed as missing after Iraqi forces ambushed her convoy when it took a wrong turn.
Few details have emerged of Lynch's ordeal as a POW and her family has told competing media outlets they are not ready to discuss selling the rights to her story.
NBC said however that it was going ahead with a TV movie that would likely be broadcast toward the end of this year.
"We are trying for the rights, but we are going ahead with a script based on the facts and on news reports," an NBC source said.
Lynch, an aspiring teacher who joined the army to get an education, comes from a community that has an unemployment rate of 15 percent -- one of the highest in West Virginia.
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