The Informant' author Kurt Eichenwald discusses some of the situations in his book, which was released as a movie last week, during a book signing at Waldenbooks in Hickory Point Mall, Forsyth. Herald & Review/Kelly J. Huff
FORSYTH - After Kurt Eichenwald captivated an audience with a humor-filled routine at Waldenbooks, a woman commented that she could see why "The Informant!" is such a funny movie, because of his sense of comedy.
Eichenwald, 48, author of the nonfiction bestseller on which the movie was based, told stories about why he wrote the book and the role he played in transforming it into a major motion picture.
A frequent visitor to Decatur during the five years he wrote and conducted research for the book, Eichenwald was in town Thursday to promote the newest edition, with Matt Damon on the cover. He signed many books and "Informant!" caps and posters for readers, in addition to a boxful of books for the store.
A New York Times reporter in 1995, Eichenwald was interested in writing a story that explored the line between truth and deception, such as was portrayed in the movie, "Body Heat."
"The ADM case was the perfect story," Eichenwald said, adding that he thought it was dull fare when he first heard about it. "I wrote about corporate fraud. I saw that and thought: price-fixing, ADM, agricultural company. I don't care."
Then Eichenwald heard that Mark Whitacre, an ADM executive, had been walking around with tape recorders strapped to his back, and there had been scenarios with cameras hidden in lamps.
"Then Whitacre started going off the rails," Eichenwald recalled. "He had a lot of secrets of his own. He was committing a lot of crimes on his own, and he had been doing them while he was working for the FBI. Then, it's almost indescribable, he started spinning off in a way nobody could comprehend. He would fake abductions. He would tell stories to one person and contradict them to another."
While other reporters backed away from the story as it made less and less sense, Eichenwald was increasingly fascinated by it.
"It became so difficult to know what was real and what wasn't," he said. "To me, that was sort of the fun challenge. I had to figure out where all the pieces lined up and where they fit together."
It dawned on Eichenwald that this story, which rolled out one lie after another and one layer of deceit stacked upon the next one, presented him with a perfect opportunity to write a true story that matched fiction with reality.
While he was writing the book, it dawned on him that it might make a good movie. But when he and his agent shopped it around to the tanned executives in Hollywood, their enthusiasm was insincere.
Eichenwald then believed his hunch that it would make a good movie had been an illusion.
Two years later, while eating with friends in a Mexican restaurant in Houston, his agent called him to say that Steven Soderbergh wanted to buy the film rights, with star Matt Damon on board to play Whitacre.
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http://www.herald-review.com/news/local/article_003b8bc8-6862-5473-8027-9e376d59db09.html
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