Attack on New York: The Prequel

Q. How did you discover this last-ditch plan by the Nazis to bomb New York City?

A. A historian named David Myer told me about it. At first I wasn't that interested, but then I saw a piece of animation re-creating one of the X planes that was designed by German scientists as part of the plan. I pitched the idea to the History Channel. No one knew about the plot except for a few aviation buffs and World War II specialists.

Q. It was originally supposed to air earlier, right?

A. They held off on it because of 9-11. On that date I was on a plane from Los Angeles, and after landing in Atlanta I ended up taking a Greyhound bus back to Florida. The next day one of the people at the History Channel said to me, "The irony of this is beyond belief." Before that date, the film was kind of a novelty. Now it feels completely different.

Q. And now you're at work on a film about 9-11 itself?

A. Yes. It began as the story of a boat built in 1938 in New York City called the Firefighter. In 1942 my father started working on the boat, which was part of the marine division of the fire department; he retired in 1965. On 9-11 this same boat was pressed into action to help put out the fires, because all the water mains were broken. And the chief, Al Fuentes, ended up being crushed by rubble and falling into a coma. He survived, though, because of a guy who happened to hear his radio and started to dig him out with his bare hands. This past Fourth of July my father and he went out on that boat together near the Statue of Liberty and swapped some pretty interesting tales.

Q. What's the name of this film?

A. Right now it's called Fire on the River, although that will probably change. It's set to air on the second anniversary of 9-11, also on the History Channel.