Studios shy away from making movies about unpopular wars we’re still stuck in, but Boal, who lives here now, disagrees. “Why wait?” he asked. “I might be retired by the time we get out of Afghanistan. Don’t you want to live in a world where artists mix it up in the culture in a timely way?”

He knows, however, that mixing it up about Osama can be dangerous, and is conscious of “the security ramifications.”

He and Bigelow optioned a book written anonymously by a Delta force commander at Tora Bora, where Osama slipped away in 2001. And about a year ago, Boal learned that the hunt for Osama had intensified.

Then the Navy Seal Team 6 dropped from the Pakistan sky. And now the duo, planning for a 2012 release, have an exciting ending and excited financiers.