World Trade Center takings to be donated to 9/11 funds
Story by Jack Foley
OLIVER Stone has announced that he is to donate 10% of World Trade Center‘s opening weekend takings to four September 11-related charities.
The controversial director is telling the true story of two police offiers who became trapped in the rubble of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, with Nicolas Cage portraying one of the two survivors.
It is due to open in US cinemas on August 9, ahead of a UK release in September.
But Stone has revealed that half of the 10% of the opening takings will go to the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, which is currently building a $500m (£270m) memorial on the site.
The remaining five per cent of receipts from August 9 to 13 will be shared equally by three charities – Tuesday’s Children, which helps children who lost a parent; the Tribute WTC Visitor Center, due to open this summer; and the New York Police and Fire Widows’ and Children’s Benefit Fund.
Commenting on Stone’s gesture, Joseph Daniels, acting president of The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation, said: “It’s our sacred obligation to remember the innocent victims and honour the sacrifice of the many brave individuals who gave their lives in the September 11 attacks.
“This contribution will help ensure that the memory of those heroes lives on through the World Trade Center Memorial.”
Police officers John McLoughlin and William Jimeno were in a group of five officers who entered the South Tower shortly before it collapsed on 9/11. The other three were killed.
But the pair were rescued after 22 hours and are thought to be the last two survivors retrieved from the rubble.
Stone, whose previous films include JFK and Platoon, said that the film intended to replicate the men’s ordeal as closely as possible.
But he has also promised the story would be told in a sensitive fashion and was designed to reflect the heorism of the day rather than the conspiracies surrounding it.