President Bush recently revealed that he stopped an Al-Qaeda attempt to remake its successful terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in Hollywood in 2002. The plot called for Al Qaeda operatives to hijack an aeroplane using shoe bombs to break down the cockpit security doors, and then fly it into LA’s tallest building, but the President shut the project down, citing problems with test audiences.

Critics agree that an attack on the nondescript US Bank building would have lacked the impact of 9/11

“The public didn’t want to see another plane flying into a tall building, and neither did we,” he said. “But if Al-Qaeda had wanted to do something in Iraq, we definitely could have worked together.”
 
Renowned critic Roger Ebert agrees that the decision not to greenlight the project was ultimately appropriate. “It was exactly the same idea, only with a worse building. Choosing an obscure skyscraper in LA to follow up a building as iconic as the World Trade Center really was lazy writing,” he said. “I haven’t seen such a poor attempt at a remake since Vanilla Sky.”

But Ebert pointed out that Al-Qaeda does have a good track record of making sequels that are more successful than the originals. “Comparing the basic truck bombing of the WTC in 1993 with 9/11 is like comparing the original Terminator with Terminator II,” he said. “When Osama bin Laden come up with a totally new ideas and techniques, he can really direct some ground-breaking work.”

After its Hollywood project was abandoned, Al Qaeda achieved a new creative impetus by relocating from its traditional New York setting to London, a tactic that has also reaped rewards for veteran director Woody Allen with his acclaimed new movie Match Point. Allen’s move across the Atlantic allowed him to make use of homegrown UK talent, an approach Al-Qaeda also adopted by recruiting UK-born terrorists for the London Underground bombing.

“I’ve found that sometimes you just need to work with some new talent to some more vitality to your work, which is why I’ve made back-to-back films with Scarlett Johansson” Allen said. “I imagine that’s even more true when you’re talking about with suicide bombers.”

But President Bush has encouraged Al Qaeda not to abandon the US market entirely, and to come back when it has some more original concepts. “The way my approval ratings are going, we could really use another hit,” he said.