FEATURE
MASTER SPY: THE ROBERT HANSSEN STORY
Sunday, Nov. 10 and Sunday, Nov. 17

October 21, 2002

"HERE WAS A MAN WITH ENORMOUS OPPOSITES WHO HAD MANAGED TO KEEP HIS SANITY, AND THAT APPEALED TO ME. I THOUGHT THAT'S SOMEONE WHO IS GOING TO BE INTERESTING TO WRITE ABOUT AND TRY TO UNDERSTAND"- Norman Mailer on Robert Hanssen

Executive Producers Norman Mailer and Lawrence Schiller Discuss the Mini-Series "Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story"

On February 18, 2001, 56-year-old FBI Special Agent Robert Philip Hanssen was arrested and charged with espionage at a dead-drop site in a park near his Vienna, Va. home. To the shock of the FBI, his family -- and the rest of the nation -- Hanssen had been spying for the Soviet Union, and later Russia, for more than 20 years of his 25-year career at the FBI.

Prior to that revelation, Hanssen's life seemed, to most, to be an open book. He was widely regarded as a loving husband to his wife, Bonnie; a devoted father to his three sons and three daughters; and a deeply devout Catholic and passionate member of the conservative Catholic organization Opus Dei. He was also a dedicated FBI agent with a long career in counterintelligence. But all the while he had been living a secret life as "Ramon," a long-term valuable mole for the KGB and, subsequently, the SVR (the Russian's Democratic Intelligence Service). He had been entrusted with some of the FBI's most sensitive material, and he betrayed that trust - and benefited financially for doing so. Hanssen was sentenced to life in prison without parole on May 10, 2002.

Hanssen had another secret as well - one he had shared with his childhood friend, Jack Hoschouer. Over the years, Hanssen photographed his wife, Bonnie, in the nude. Though she knew about the photos, she didn't realize that they were being shared with Hoschouer. She also didn't know that, on many occasions, he had encouraged and arranged for Hoschouer to clandestinely observe them having sex - or that Hanssen had had an unusual relationship with a stripper during part of his married life.

MASTER SPY: THE ROBERT HANSSEN STORY, a new four-hour, special event mini-series starring William Hurt, Mary-Louise Parker, Peter Boyle, Ron Silver, Wayne Knight and David Strathairn, will be broadcast Sunday, Nov. 10 and Sunday, Nov. 17 (9:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT; each night) on the CBS Television Network. This drama is based on the shocking true story of FBI Special Agent Robert P. Hanssen, the recently-convicted master spy who single-handedly created the greatest breach of security in the history of the United States.

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Lawrence Schiller and Norman Mailer, who have collaborated on other projects featuring high profile/controversial real-life people, including the CBS mini-series "American Tragedy" about the O.J. Simpson trial, the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Executioner's Song about Utah murderer Gary Gilmore, and Oswald's Tale about Lee Harvey Oswald, spent nine months

researching and investigating the life of Robert Hanssen for this mini-series. Mailer wrote the script and Schiller directed it. Schiller and Mailer, along with FBI consultant Rusty Capps, discuss the research and fascinating facts involved in the real-story as well as the accuracy and scope of the resulting mini-series.

How Hanssen's Bizarre Story Attracted the Talents of Mailer and Schiller:

"Larry (Schiller) called me a week after Hanssen was arrested and asked me if I'd be interested," said Mailer. "I immediately said yes... (Hanssen) was, on the one hand, an extreme right wing figure and on the other he was working with the Russians all those years. Since he had done it successfully for so long he obviously was not clinically insane. So, here was a man with enormous opposites who had managed to keep his sanity - and that appealed to me. I thought that's someone who is going to be interesting to write about and try to understand."

Hanssen's opposites are what immediately intrigued Schiller as well. "I had read an article that discussed the betrayal of his family and his children -- and that he had betrayed them with more than his spying activities. He had taken photographs of his wife that were very intimate. He videotaped his wife in intimate situations and shared that with other people that his wife didn't know about... So to me, it was a psychological layer on top of another layer. And then there were a lot of other issues being raised. He belonged to Opus Dei -- that was a staunch enemy of communism worldwide -- and yet he was dealing with the Soviets. Was that a cover? Or was he bipolar? Was he like a pendulum, swinging back and forth? So that's what interested me, this psychological portrait."

Mailer adds that Hanssen's sex life is what surprised him the most about Hanssen. "It added a third element. On the one hand he was a technically excellent FBI agent, on the other hand he was spying for the Russians - that's contradicting enough. But then to find out that he had this very bizarre kinky sex life -- without his wife knowing about it -- changed it to a three dimensional portrait. When I first came across it I thought, 'Oh my lord, how are we ever going to do that!'"

Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction:

Beginning the Research Process:

Shortly after Hanssen's arrest, Schiller and Mailer embarked upon a nine-month quest to interview as many of Hanssen's associates, relatives and friends as possible, even interviewing the Hanssen's Opus Dei priest.

Though Mailer and Schiller have different instincts, they've learned how to work together through the years - and believe that their approaches complement one another. "We're interested in different aspects of (a story), so we have our run-ins as a result," explains Mailer. "But on balance we end up with a fairly rounded portrait of things. We discuss things afterwards and we argue back and forth. I respect Larry's sense of reality -- I think he might respect mine. There are times when we have quite a bit of fun and there are other times when we're ready to punch each other out," he said laughing.

For MASTER SPY: THE ROBERT HANNSEN STORY, some of the interviews required them to travel to other countries. Schiller flew to Germany to interview Jack Hoschouer, the man with whom Hanssen had shared his sexual exploits, and Mailer and Schiller went to Russia together to interview members of the KGB that were involved with Hanssen.

Access to KGB Members in Moscow:

Schiller credits some of their past work in Moscow as having helped them to open some doors for this endeavor: "Norman Mailer and I went to Moscow in 1991, and I convinced the KGB to give us the Lee Harvey Oswald files, which became a book called Oswald's Tale, on which I collaborated with Mailer. The way we handled that subject matter earned us a certain respect by the internal security forces of the Soviet Union. So when I went back in 2001 and asked that Viktor Cherkashin and Leonid Vladimirovich Sherbashin, two of the highest ranking KGB officials, grant Mr. Mailer and I interviews, the people who had said no to other well-respected television and print journalists invited Mailer and I to a dinner. We flew to Moscow and we started a series of tape-recorded conversations with Cherkashin and Sherbashin that I think are quite extraordinary. We asked hypothetical questions that were apropos to Hanssen. We discussed what it was like to deal with people that were giving away secrets from their own country, how they would deal with (a mole) when they didn't know who he/she was (as in Hanssen's case), etc. They really gave us an incredible amount of information."

Asked if he was surprised by the access they got with the former KGB officials in Moscow and FBI agents in the U.S., Mailer laughs and says: "Larry has psychic keys that open mysterious doors. How he does it, I don't know sometimes - but he's very, very good at that. Left on my own I might say okay if denied access, but Larry never gives up."

Hanssen's Family's Participation:

Per Schiller, "Some of the closest members of (Hanssen's) family visited with Norman and I at Norman's home and at my home, gave us extensive interviews and then introduced us to other members of the family when they felt secure about how we were approaching this. They didn't want their father to be whitewashed. They weren't interested in a pretty picture to counter the image that the United States government was portraying. We told them, 'We want to feel the reality of what your life was like. It's not always going to be the perfect picture.' I think that kind of straightforwardness is what bonded us. They then introduced us to members of Bonnie's family -- her brothers, etc. Before we knew it, the circle of confidentiality grew, and we were able at any time to pick up the phone and ask a technical question. They even arranged for us to be at certain social gatherings so we could see how the family interacted."

As to whether or not Bonnie Hanssen granted them an interview, Schiller responds: "I don't discuss if Bonnie Hanssen cooperated or not because she has kept her privacy, and I respect that privacy. I can only say that the most intimate and closest members of Robert Hanssen's family in one way or another cooperated, not in the making of this film, but in giving us a proper understanding from their point of view."

Per Schiller, details about Hanssen's childhood - and his challenged relationship with his late father that is featured in this mini-series -- came from his mother and indirectly from Hanssen through his children and others. "I had several telephone conversations with his mother in Florida. And, after his arrest, Hanssen revealed information about his father to several people - which was then relayed to us. Hanssen's own children were among the people who had heard about it from him when they met with their father in jail, and we talked to them about it. So it was all authenticated from more than one source."

The FBI's Assistance:

"The FBI cooperated with the production by not only giving access to Hanssen's former colleagues (such as David Major, who was Hannsen's boss's boss, and Agent Paul Moore, who car-pooled with Hanssen), but by giving access to the agents involved in the case [which included] an anonymous agent who was involved in Hanssen's capture, with whom I spent hours, [and] even FBI agents who worked with Hanssen whom we used as technical advisors." Schiller was, indeed, surprised by their openness with him for this project. "I think they've gotten to a point where they need to acknowledge their mistakes. I think they feel they will be better respected if they're honest."

The Quest for Accuracy:

Authenticating the Script:

"What I didn't want it to become was a docudrama where the emphasis was on the drama rather than the docu," explains Mailer. "(The mini-series) is a journalistic interpretation (of Hanssen) in the sense that we certainly tried to be as accurate as we could... Whenever possible, we stayed with the interviews. But there's no such thing as writing a movie script about a real person that does not have a lot of invented dialogue. We were trying to come as close as we could to what the best evidence suggests the reality might have been."

Adds Schiller, "Most of Hanssen's dialogue is based on what his children told us, his closest friends told us, what their beliefs were, how he thought about certain subjects and how he acted. But in fact, Mr. Mailer has written dialogue that is totally fiction because we were not allowed to interview Mr. Hanssen. But we think that we've come as close to portraying what Hanssen was about, certainly closer than he could have ever explained if he sat and gave us interviews, because an interview with Hanssen would be self-serving and would not have journalistic objectivity."

In addition to the relying on interviews and making use of technical advisors from the FBI, Schiller sought to authenticate sections of the script in other ways. "When Mailer finished the screenplay and I started to structure and edit it, I sent it to Cherkashin and Sherbashin in Moscow for their comments. Surprisingly, they had very few comments except to say, 'If you ever come to Moscow to film it, we will cooperate.' And, when we went to film in Moscow we met with them. Much to my surprise, these two men, whose faces are not known to the world --who aren't even publicized in their own Russian press -- agreed to appear in a scene in the film playing themselves. And it is really their stamp of accreditation to us, validating that part of the story as being authentic. They would not participate in a film that did not at least give an authentic representation."

"Oleg Kalugin, a former officer of the KGB who masqueraded as a journalist for a number of years, also assisted us," continued Schiller. "He described the safe room in the Russian embassy in Washington, D.C. and how the air conditioner was used to ward off the FBI from listening to them. Kalugin actually plays himself in the film in a scene. Again, that was another vote of support that at least the Soviet side of the story as it related to Hanssen -- the political points of view, the climate and all of that -- was correct."

Into the Mirror (Hanssen's scripted inner monologue):

Throughout the mini-series, there are many moments when Hanssen is talking to himself in the mirror. "The mirror became a metaphor for what was going on in his mind," says Mailer. "I'm just guessing that this is the sort of dialogue that that went on in his mind." Adds Schiller, "This is what the character is emotionally going through at that moment which drives those scenes..."

When asked if there is evidence that Hanssen would talk to himself in the mirror, Schiller responds: "Without naming members of the family, they told us that several times -- since they all shared a couple bathrooms -- they would be ready to enter the bathroom and discover that their father was there. And, they would hear him talking. On one occasion, the door was open and another member of the family did see him talking to the mirror. Another member of the family saw him just standing and staring into a bedroom mirror for a long period of time, so one can only assume he was in very deep thought."

Schiller and Mailer also interviewed the psychiatrist who had interviewed Hanssen for 43 hours after he was incarcerated. Says Schiller: "He told us that Hanssen was haunted by his father's voice and various things that his father had done to him. This psychiatrist told us that based on his experience, people with childhoods that haunt them usually find that the mirror becomes a safe haven -- and yet at times the mirror attacks them."

The Actors Meet Their Real-Life Counterparts:

Schiller managed to coordinate for several of the actors to meet with the appropriate real-life people to help them with their roles. Hoschouer met with William Hurt (who plays Hanssen) and David Strathairn (who plays Hoschouer). A few of Hanssen's children and The Hanssen's Opus Dei priest, Father C. John McCloskey III, met with Hurt and Mary-Louise Parker (who plays Bonnie). Wayne Knight met Paul Moore, one of several FBI agents that contributed to Knight's composite character, and Ron Silver, who actually attended Hanssen's sentencing with Schiller, met with David Major, who contributed to the composite character of Hanssen's FBI boss played by Silver. "So by the time we started filming, we had gathered the confidence and the support of the closest members of that family and others who met with our actors," says Schiller, with a satisfied smile. "This was not something that we entered blindly."

The Project's Scope:

Shooting on location around the Globe:

"This story didn't take place just in Washington, D.C. or in people's homes," explains Schiller. "It also took place in Moscow, in Hong Kong, in Hawaii... Coming from a journalistic background as I do, I went to all these locations to research it and then I made the decision to film in all these locations at a great cost. Normally productions like this don't travel all around the world, but we did do that." Rich locations include the Kremlin and the military academy in Moscow; the floating restaurant where Hanssen had dined in Hong Kong; the Sheraton Wakiki in Hawaii where Hanssen had vacationed with his wife; and in front of the White House, the Capitol and the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Shooting at the FBI:

To Schiller's delight, the FBI permitted his production to spend a Saturday shooting on their premises. "For the first time in 10 years the FBI has allowed an entertainment company to shoot inside the FBI. They allowed the filming of a story of a man who violated the trust of the Bureau. The Bureau acknowledges it made tremendous mistakes; I think it's a credit to the Bureau that they have matured to that point. They even took William Hurt and Ron Silver and Wayne Knight into the strategic secret command center of the FBI -- the bunker -- to give them a feeling of authenticity (though the production didn't film there)."

Working with the FBI:

"The production designer, Michael Baugh, and I were permitted to tour many of the floors of the FBI so we could recreate the offices in our Toronto studios. We were allowed to photograph and take measurements. We saw historical photographs. We saw all of these areas that are highly secret. We even photographed the FBI bathrooms so we could re-create a bathroom scene. We had complete cooperation. They also allowed us to use retired FBI agents that worked with Hanssen as technical advisors."

FBI Technical Advisors:

One of the retired FBI agents who worked as a technical advisor for this production was Rusty Capps, who is currently President of the Center for Counterintelligence and Security Studies in Alexandria, Va. "Because four of the seniors of our company all knew and worked with Bob Hanssen in Counterintelligence, it came to the attention of Larry Schiller and Norman Mailer that perhaps we might be worthy of talking to in order to get a sense of some of the issues, some of the background in the case... Then when they started shooting the movie, they asked us to be on-scene technical advisors. So, we were up in Toronto assisting in that process," explained Capps, who worked for 16 years in Counterintelligence - and was in FBI headquarters with Hanssen from 1990 to 1995.

In Toronto, most of Capps' responsibility was to ensure that the scenes set in the FBI offices were accurately portrayed. For instance, Capps made certain the actors wore appropriate badging at appropriate times. Also, he advised that at the office the agents generally keep their guns in their desks. He also helped them dress the office sets with items that would have been found in Counterintelligence offices. "We went out to a Canadian war surplus store and bought some Russian hats, some Russian insignia and some Russian shirts and hung them around the office spaces. That's what they would have had - that would have been their target. I have at home a very furry Russian hat with a Russian insignia on the top of it," laughed Capps

"My wife (who was in FBI Counterintelligence nearly 17 years) and I found the FBI headquarters' sets in Toronto to be absolutely eerie. The attention to detail was incredible. We made one correction because they called a division the National Security Division. But when Hanssen was there it was the Intelligence Division, so they had to change that... But the amount of effort that Larry went through to ensure that the detail was consistent with FBI headquarters was remarkable. Larry even went to the extent of building a model of what the building looked like across the courtyard so when you see out the windows it looks real... I guarantee there are going to be FBI agents who watch this and are going to be convinced that the FBI actually let Larry film all of the FBI headquarters scenes on the fourth floor, because there is such a remarkable attention to detail."

The Experience of Making the Mini-Series:

"The experience for me on each film is learning about something I knew nothing about," says Schiller. "If I have a sense of discovery and my actors have a sense of discovery, then I think it is that we can portray riveting characters that tell a story that will be interesting to a wide audience. The most important thing is for the viewers to have an experience they didn't expect to have... I think they will."

RATING: To Be Announced
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Press Contacts:         Barbara Abseck  212/975-4637            beabseck@cbs.com        
Susan J. Marks  323/575-2118            susan.marks@tvc.cbs.com

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