The constructing on Fiji Means in Marina del Rey, California, is as nondescript as they arrive — simply one other glass and concrete workplace tower like so many others hunkered in enterprise parks throughout Los Angeles. However 20 years in the past, only a few weeks after the 9/11 tragedy, a bunch of elite Hollywood figures and a handful of high U.S. Military brass met for a clandestine summit straight out of a Michael Crichton novel.

A number of what transpired that evening continues to be high secret, however this a lot we do know: One night in October 2001, simply weeks after al-Qaeda terrorists took down the Twin Towers in Manhattan and maimed the Pentagon, a bunch of about 30 of Hollywood’s high creatives — A-listers like Oliver Stone, “Legislation & Order” producer Dick Wolf, “Seven” director David Fincher, “NYPD Blue’s” David Milch and the late John Singleton, to call only a few — have been quietly invited to mingle with high-level members of the U.S. navy.

The group was formally, although secretly, named the Leisure Trade Activity Power and its mission, which everybody enthusiastically accepted, was to assist America stop one other 9/11 by brainstorming terrorist eventualities so out-of-the-box loopy they may solely occur within the films. Except, that’s, al-Qaeda considered them first. In spite of everything, till 2001 no one had ever imagined — or ready for the thought — that hijacked planes might be used as lethal missiles in opposition to landmark buildings just like the World Commerce Middle and the Pentagon.

“The 9/11 assaults had simply occurred,” A. Michael Andrews II, the now-retired main common who got here up with the thought for the assembly, informed the The Wrap in an unique interview providing particulars in regards to the group and its membership that haven’t beforehand been disclosed. “The Pentagon was in gear and rolling. We had a defense-science board and an Military-science board all the usual actors. However no one knew what to anticipate. So, I believed it will be worthwhile to look outdoors our typical mind-set about terrorism. I requested if we may get some leisure trade volunteers collectively and see if they may dream up plot traces which may expose a weak spot in our real-life anti-terrorism community capabilities. It was a possibility for us to be taught and for Hollywood to assist.”

To a point, Hollywood had already been serving to. The Institute for Artistic Know-how, launched in 1999 by the Military Analysis Lab in affiliation with USC, had been drawing on Hollywood expertise for a few years as a super-high-tech war-modeling and virtual-reality coaching facility. Screenwriter John Milius, most well-known for penning “Apocalypse Now” and the “Soiled Harry” films, was stated to be an early marketing consultant.

So after 9/11, when the Military determined to corral a bunch of film and TV execs for a terrorism bull session, it was solely pure that they’d maintain the confab on the ICT’s marina command middle, which turned out to be a lot cooler-looking on the within than its drab exterior would recommend. “It had this one door that appeared prefer it was out of SPECTRE headquarters,” James Korris, a former Common TV producer who served because the ICT’s artistic director in the course of the early 2000s, informed The Wrap, referring to James Bond’s nemesis. “It slid open electrically and we even added a sound impact, so it sounded just like the doorways on the Enterprise.”

The primary assembly of the Leisure Trade Activity Power — the acronym EITK in some way by no means caught on — started at round 7 p.m. and didn’t break up till someday earlier than midnight. Attendees had so many horrifyingly damaging and diabolical concepts, they determined to satisfy once more a couple of weeks later for a second session. All signed NDA’s swearing them to secrecy and whereas there have been whispers in Hollywood newsrooms about some type of hush-hush summit, no one blabbed a phrase. In actual fact, to at the present time, those that attended have stored their lips sealed; each one of many job pressure creatives contacted by The Wrap was unavailable to share their recollections of the occasion. One attendee confirmed those that attended, however declined to speak additional.

However for the primary time, Korris shared with TheWrap a listing of attendees. Some decisions have been logical, administrators and producers behind crime dramas like “Hill Road Blues” and struggle epics like “Platoon.” Others appeared nearly random, like Randal Kleiser, the director of…. “Grease” and “The Blue Lagoon.” Right here’s the roster, full with noteworthy pre-2001 credit:

• David Ayer, screenwriter (“Coaching Day”)
• Danny Bilson, Screenwriter (“Viper,” “The Sentinel”)
• Martha Coolidge, Director
• Christopher Crowe, Screenwriter (“The Final of the Mohicans”)
• Steven de Souza, Screenwriter (“Diehard”)
• David Fincher, Director (“Se7en,” “The Sport”)
• Naomi Foner, Screenwriter (“Dropping Isaiah”)
• Spike Jonze, Director (“Being John Malkovich”)
• Jerome Gary, Producer (“Pumping Iron,” “Stripper”)
• Walon Inexperienced, Screenwriter (“The Wild Bunch”)
• Randal Kleiser, Director (“Grease”)
• Mary Lambert, Director (“Pet Sematary”)
• Niki Marvin, Producer (“Shawshank Redemption”)
• David Milch, Govt Producer (“Hill Road Blues”)
• Jonathan Sanger, Producer (“Elephant Man”)
• Robert Shaye, Govt, Producer, Director (New Line Cinema)
• John SIngleton, Director (“Boyz N the Hood”)
• Oliver Stone, Author-Director (“Platoon,” “JFK”)
• Robert Ward, author (“Hill Road Blues”)
• Dick Wolf, Producer (“Legislation and Order”)
• Joseph Zito, Director (“Friday the thirteenth”)

In keeping with Korris, who attended each periods, a big portion of the primary assembly was dedicated to dissecting and analyzing the mindset of a terrorist. “They spent a good period of time making an attempt to determine what Osama bin Laden was all about,” he says. “What his character was like, what was driving him. On the time, Bin Laden was a clean slate that we have been making an attempt to fill in. So, it was principally character improvement.” However the group additionally did a number of work on story arcs, pitching numerous potential terrorist plot traces. “I’ve an entire e-book stuffed with them however I don’t need to say an excessive amount of in regards to the specifics,” Korris stated. “I don’t need to give anybody concepts. However a few of them have been frequent sense and a few of them have been just a little extra obscure. It was lots like being in a writers’ room. They only got here up with concepts and I wrote them down after which I made a report.”

That report — which to at the present time stays unavailable to the general public — was in the end delivered to the best ranges of the George W. Bush administration, with Korris and Andrews flying to Washington, DC for a briefing with Wayne Downing, then the deputy nationwide safety adviser in control of combating terrorism (who reported on to then-Nationwide Safety Advisor Condoleezza Rice and then-Assistant to the President for Homeland Safety Tom Ridge). “Downing was clearly somebody who didn’t endure fools gladly, however he was very gracious and really well mannered,” Korris stated. “I gave him the report however I do not know what he ended up doing with it.”

Andrews has an identical recollection of the assembly. “I don’t suppose Downing requested a single query,” he says.

After all, it’s doable that the report saved lives. Who is aware of what dastardly plots it might need predicted and helped to foil? Because of Oliver Stone and Dick Wolf and the others who devoted mind cells to the anti-terrorism trigger, America is presumably just a little bit safer as we speak than after they gathered within the marina. The ICT, which continues to be round, though not headquartered on Fiji Means, is definitely in higher form; its price range, funded primarily by the U.S. Military Analysis Lab, has ballooned from an preliminary $45 million in 1999 to shut to $300 million as we speak, in line with a person with data of the operation.

And for Hollywood, there was an additional bonus: A few of the concepts cooked up by the Leisure Trade Activity Power got here in useful as soon as the attendees received again to their studio heaps. “Oh, I feel a number of of them ended up in movies,” says Korris. “It wouldn’t shock me if a few of the individuals within the assembly thought, ‘Hey, that’s a good suggestion.’”