Tina Fey, my personal lady-hero and everyone’s favourite Saturday Night Live legend, has reportedly signed on to produce and star in TALIBAN SHUFFLE.
Taken from the memoir written by journalist Kim Barker, Fey and former 30 Rock colleague Robert Carlock will reunite, with the latter adapting the novel. Tina will produce the project under her Little Stranger banner, helped along by Lorne Michaels and his company Broadway Video. Have a read of the official book synopsis and let us know what you think:
Kim Barker is not your typical, impassive foreign correspondent—she is candid, self-deprecating, laugh-out-loud funny. At first an awkward newbie in Afghanistan, she grows into a wisecracking, seasoned reporter with grave concerns about our ability to win hearts and minds in the region. In The Taliban Shuffle, Barker offers an insider’s account of the “forgotten war” in Afghanistan and Pakistan, chronicling the years after America’s initial routing of the Taliban, when we failed to finish the job.
When Barker arrives in Kabul, foreign aid is at a record low, electricity is a pipe dream, and of the few remaining foreign troops, some aren’t allowed out after dark. Meanwhile, in the vacuum left by the U.S. and NATO, the Taliban is regrouping as the Afghan and Pakistani governments flounder. Barker watches Afghan police recruits make a travesty of practice drills and observes the disorienting turnover of diplomatic staff. She is pursued romantically by the former prime minister of Pakistan and sees adrenaline-fueled colleagues disappear into the clutches of the Taliban. And as her love for these hapless countries grows, her hopes for their stability and security fade.
I’ve never seen a ‘serious Fey’, so it’ll be interesting to see her feature in something which – at the heart of it – is very sombre. The project also raises the question ‘will she be able to pull it off?’, especially as she’s so suited to comedy. We’ll have to wait and see.
