 Everyone in America witnessed first-hand the intense reporting of the Gulf War in January, 1991 Iran by the CNN crew of Bernard Shaw, Peter Arnett, and John Holliman (here portrayed by Robert Wisdom, Bruce McGill, and John Carroll Lynch), who stayed behind in Baghdad during the bombing. CNN became the only news organization to broadcast first-hand live reports. What we didn t see was the heroics of the team and the political posturing that was required to get the story. This movie is based on CNN producer Robert Wiener s (Michael Keaton) memoirs of the event. The movie opens one year prior to the Gulf War, beginning with Iraq s invasion of Kuwait. Wiener works and becomes close friends with an Iraqi official (David Suchet), which gives the CNN team a leg up with Saddam Hussein and the rest of the Iraqi forces.