Take A First Look: Of Mira Nair's Amelia

Amelia

Aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart is an American icon. But to filmmaker Mira Nair, who has directed the biopic of the legendary aviatrix and women's rights advocate, Earhart's appeal extends far beyond America.

The movie, which is the biggest film Nair has made in her two decades of filmmaking, opens this Friday, October 23. With Oscar buzz already and two-time Oscar-winner Hilary Swank in the lead role, Amelia could open among the top five films of the week.

 

From her sudden exposure to global fame in 1928 to her disappearance mid-flight less than 10 years later, Earhart's life was filled with exciting and challenging events.

Earhart, who became the first woman and second person to fly solo across the Atlantic in 1932, wrote the book The Fun of It, focusing on her adventure. Two years later, she became the first pilot to fly solo from Hawaii to California. In 1937, she and Fred Noonan took off from Miami on an around-the-world flight. After 22,000 miles of flying, they were last seen in Lae, New Guinea. No one knows what happened to them. There were speculations that her plane was shot down by the Japanese who enslaved her.

But Nair said she is not speculating in the film what might have happened. "There is enough excitement and drama in the life she led," she said with a chuckle. She said while the last 15 minutes of her film uses the transcripts from Earhart in the ill-fated plane, the ending is not simple.

"You have to pay $12.50 to know how the film ends," the director added, chuckling. Earhart was also known for leading a bold and uncompromising life as a woman ahead of her time. She took dangerous risks, she refused to see limits, and she became a symbol of the American spirit, Nair said.

"She is also an inspiration to men and women across the world," added the filmmaker for whom Amelia is the first Hollywood film with a raft of well-known actors including Richard GereNair said she wanted to make Earhart's life into a rousing, adventure-filled biopic.

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