In 2003, Valerie Plame looked the part of any successful working mother.  She ran a household, reared a set of twins, and had a typical office job. Or so it would seem. In reality, she was a covert CIA operative who was in charge of various operations overseas.

After years of cultivating contacts and relationships, her entire life was exposed when Washington Post scribe Robert Novak outed her as a CIA operative in an article in the publication. The incident was thought to be a retaliatory action against her family after her husband, ex-diplomat Joe Wilson,  wrote a series of scathing op-ed pieces indicting the Bush administration and their assertion that Iraq had acquired uranium from Niger. Wilson maintained that the administration was manipulating the evidence to justify the Iraq invasion.

Ultimately, White House aide Scooter Libby was revealed as the source for Novak’s piece. He was tried and found guilty of obstruction of justice, making false statements, and perjury.  His sentence was commuted by George Bush in 2007.

Fair Game brings to life a fictionalized account of the story behind the story.  If you are a newshound, you already know the details of the case, but what the movie does a great job of is illuminating the far reaching consequences of the administration’s decision to out her.

It wasn’t just Plame and her family who suffered, the administration has the blood of foreigners on their hands as well.  Many of Plame’s contacts suffered or died as a direct result of her being outed.  That makes the whole ugly mess more difficult to swallow.

On Saturday morning, it looked like Megamind was going head to head with Due Date.  Both films made around $12M on Friday evening, but Megamind built on its momentum and added another $20 M to its total on Saturday, bringing its full weekend total to $47.7M.  This came from a mixture of 2D and 3D venues.

That is still a bit lower than Despicable Me ($56.4M)  made on its opening weekend, though. Incidentally, Paramount has had a number one movie three of the last  four weekends (Paranormal Activity 2, Jackass 3D and now Megamind.)

That is  not to say that Due Date didn’t have a great weekend.  It’s total of $33.5 M was good enough to break the November record for best opening for an R-rated comedy. The Robert Downey Jr./Zach Galifianakis comedy didn’t so fare so well when it came to critics, but audiences seemed to enjoy the movie.

Tyler Perry continues to be box office gold for Lionsgate.  His latest movie For Colored Girls was not widely screened for critics, but it managed an impressive $20.1 M anyway.  This is the first time Perry has released a R-rated film.  The weekend total is a bit lower than what his films typically earn, but it is a good, solid number.

Several outlets are reporting today that director Doug Liman will be directing the adaptation of a popular Japanese anime novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka.

All You Need Is Kill was released in the states last year, and is about an alien invasion in which the protagonist sets off to battle, and dies.

He is reborn every morning to fight another day, only to perish again.  A female soldier named Bitch of War makes an appearance as well. The book is referred to as being video-game inspired.

Chances are, you are familiar with Liman’s work. He has directed Swingers, The Bourne Identity, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

His latest movie Fair Game stars Naomi Watts and Sean Penn and will be hitting theaters November 19.  The movie tells the politically charged story about Valerie Plame who was outed by the White House staff as being a CIA operative.

So far, Liman has been able to smoothly transition from one genre to another, which makes us excited to see what he can do with this.

Remember Valerie Plame?  She was the CIA agent who was outed by White House Staffers when her husband wrote an op-ed for the New York Times that condemned the Bush administration for fabricating intelligence that led us into the Iraq war.

In the upcoming movie Fair Game, Plame is played by Aussie actress Naomi Watts. Her husband, Joe Wilson, is played by Sean Penn. The film is directed by Doug Liman, who previously directed The Bourne Identity, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith, so he obviously knows his way around a spy thriller.

If I might editorialize briefly, what do you think of casting Sean Penn in a politically charged role?  He did star in Milk, but he has been so outspoken about the Iraq war that it seems a little off-putting to me. He is a wonderful actor, and Watts is always solid, so I am sure the movie will be intriguing.

You can catch the trailer after the jump. Fair Game opens in theaters November 5.

USA Networks’ new series Covert Affairs doesn’t premiere until July 13, but The Flickcast was invited to Toronto to check out the set and talk to some of the cast.  There’s too much content to put in one post so we thought it was best to break this up over several articles.  Getting things started is this interview with Covert Affairs Executive Producer Doug Liman.

Even if you haven’t heard of Liman but are into the spy genre there’s a high probability you’ve seen one of his films.  Liman directed the first of the Bourne trilogy films and produced the other two.  He also produced Mr. and Mrs. Smith and is currently working on Fair Game; the true story of CIA spy Valerie Plame Wilson whose identity was revealed by the White House to allegedly discredit her husband.

With all that on Liman’s film resume it’s no surprise he was drawn to a TV series about spies.  Ultimately, however, it was working on Fair Game that became the driving force behind Covert Affairs. According to Liman:

“…in doing the research for Fair Game, we got access to a lot of current and former covert officers with the CIA. And most of the material that we were learning about had no place in the movie, unless I wanted the movie to be 10 hours long. And so we had this huge treasure trove of just sort of cool factoids.

And you know, that stuff is, you know, it was just like the perfect timing to be developing a TV show in the same arena at the same time, because we’ve just taken all the research that, you know, wasn’t appropriate for Fair Game and just channeled it right into Covert Affairs.”

While at their core Covert Affairs and Fair Game are about the CIA both spin the material in completely different directions. While Covert Affairs plays to the strengths of the CIA and what they do to protect the nation, Fair Game definitely represents the Agency in a moment of weakness.

This distinction was not lost on Liman as he explained the differences: