Mohamed Fahmy memoir to be developed as feature film, publisher says

Mohamed Fahmy, a former Al-Jazeera journalist who was released from prison in Egypt last month, is shown during and interview with The Canadian Press in Ottawa Monday, November 9, 2015. (Fred Chartrand/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

LONDON -- The publisher of Mohamed Fahmy's upcoming memoir says a British company will develop the book as a feature film.

Penguin Random House Canada says Fahmy's memoir "The Marriott Cell" will tell the story of how he and two colleagues of Al Jazeera English were imprisoned in Egypt, and their battle for freedom.

The book is described as a political thriller that covers the arrest, trial and incarceration of bureau chief Fahmy, Australian correspondent Peter Greste and Egyptian producer Baher Mohamed in 2013.

Fahmy and Baher Mohamed were pardoned last September. Greste had previously been deported.

Fahmy's memoir is to be published in October and the publisher says The Development Partnership will turn it into a film.

Writer/producer/director Michael Bronner will write the adaptation of the memoir, and Egyptian actor/producer Amr Waked is also working on the project.

"A feature is going to allow us to relive and dramatically portray what no news reel grasped; one's inner voice caught in an emotional struggle between lawlessness, failed corporate decisions, and bureaucratic red tape that left us in a vicious Kafkaesque black hole fighting for our lives and that bigger cause of press freedom," said Fahmy in a statement.