Kathryn Bigelow’s best director nomination for The Hurt Locker at this year’s Oscars is almost a foregone conclusion. That should mean she’s about to become a hot commodity around Hollywood, and, it’s probably only a matter of time before she too ends up being rumored to direct Spider-Man. But she won’t, because she’s already line up her next project. Kathryn Bigelow is heading back to the terrorist controlled territory.

In The Hurt Locker she told the story of an American bomb disposal unit working in the unfriendly streets of Iraq. Production Weekly says that in her next movie, she’ll tell the story of an American journalist held prisoner by the Taliban. The film is Held by the Taliban, based on a series of articles published in the New York Times by David Rohde.

Rohde’s stories start with his kidnapping, as he’s whisked away and held prisoner for seven months and ten days. His captivity begins in Afghanistan, but eventually they were moved to Pakistan in those tribal areas where we all know Osama bin Laden is hiding, yet everyone pretends he isn’t so we don’t have to actually go in and do anything about it. To be honest, if anyone but Bigelow was doing this, I doubt anyone would be interested. America is long past the point of war-story burnout, and we’re even more tired of hearing about kidnapped reporters. But Bigelow proved with The Hurt Locker that she has a unique perspective on the Middle East problem. It’s her perspective, more than anything else, that I’m most interested in.

UPDATE! MTV claims to have picked up a story from the New York Times in which they say Production Weekly's report is a complete fake and Bigelow isn't involved in this film. We've been unable to find the story referenced by MTV in the Times online edition, but if true, the Times would be in a position to know since the story was first published in their pages.