Image Credit: National Geographic

Tonight, the film SEAL Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden premieres on the National Geographic Channel (8 p.m. ET) before becoming available to Netflix members in the U.S. on Nov. 5. Having already making headlines for its pre-election airdate — which director John Stockwell, distributor/Obama supporter Harvey Weinstein, and National Geographic have insisted is not politically motivated — the film uses composite characters to dramatize the events surrounding the killing of bin Laden. EW spoke with Stockwell.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Is there anything you’d like to make clear about Harvey Weinstein’s involvement with the film?
JOHN STOCKWELL: Well, he didn’t make me change the story so that it’s the president who fires the fatal shot that kills Osama bin Laden. Honestly, he’s so into this story, he’s so proud of our special forces and our intelligence community. He did afford us the ability to get some stock footage and news footage into the movie, the same way he did with The Queen and The Iron Lady. He didn’t choose the date, that was chosen by the National Geographic Channel, and they are majority owned by [News Corporation’s Fox Cable Networks], so I don’t think it was a political decision — at least not one that was intended to get the president re-elected. Harvey came in really late in the game, after I’d done my director’s cut, so he didn’t influence the actual movie very much. READ FULL STORY »