OPINION: I have read the early draft script for the They Are Us movie many times since it was leaked to us.
Within seconds of first reading it, I was shocked by the extremely graphic opening scenes that effectively recreate the March 15 terror attacks.
People were intended to be shown dying in explicit detail, there were close-ups, there was blood and the terrorist was featured heavily.
I couldn't believe it. I have covered March 15 since the day of the attacks and I knew immediately that for many of the victims the direction of this version of the script would be deeply traumatising.
It was also nothing like what Kiwi writer/director Andrew Niccol implied when he told Deadline "They Are Us is not so much about the attack but the response to the attack."
Instead, the attack was front and centre, detailed on page after page of this "development script" which was being circulated in the movie industry.
I could also see that a number of victims had been named and extensive details of their 'backstory' - their real life - used and I wondered if they had given permission.
Because the planned reconstruction of the attack is so distressing, we decided to only make public short, heavily censored excerpts.
We showed these excerpts to only three families: two whose loved ones were named in the script read the pieces relevant to them, while a third family representative whose loved one was not named, but who read the way the terrorist was portrayed.
Salwa Mohamed had support people with her when I met her. I will never forget the look on her face when I informed her that her deceased husband Khaled Mustafa and son Hamza were featured on the second page of the script. She had not even been contacted by the producers.
It got worse when Salwa read the dramatised way the script had them dying together in the mosque - the truth is they died apart. Khaled died in the mosque, while Hamza was killed outside.
I will also never forget the look on the face of widow Ambreen and her son Abdullah Naeem. Together they read the Hollywood depiction of their husband/father Naeem and son/brother Tahla.
Both were heroes but the draft script was full of inaccuracies. It also had plans for an extreme close up of Tahla dying - Abdullah was physically trembling as he read about his brother.
Maha Elmadani's father was killed in Al Noor Mosque but he is not specifically named in the script. However, Maha said the portrayal of the terrorist as terrifying and frightening was disgusting.
All of the people we consulted were united in saying this script was worse than the livestream the terrorists used to broadcast his atrocities.
The pain in all three families was clear and it was obvious that the movie is doing harm to the victims of March 15 before it is even made.
On a personal level I found it very distressing to be informing these families of what was in the script. But on a professional level, I could see the public interest in telling this story so the victims of March 15 and the rest of New Zealand could see what Hollywood is planning.
It was Abdullah Naeem, the son and brother of two of the heroes that day, who summed up best why this story about the draft script needed to be broken open.
"We need to speak up against it, because it's not just us. There's other families that will be affected by this," said Abdullah.
"So I thank you for telling us and we are taking a stand before it impacts my little brother or it impacts other families. You've done the right stuff to say something about it before it gets released."
I believe telling the story of the leaked They Are Us draft script was the right thing to do because Hollywood and those involved in the project need to hear the message from victims of March 15.
Patrick Gower is Newshub's national correspondent.
