The building on Fiji Way in Marina del Rey, California, is as nondescript as they come — just another glass and concrete office tower like so many others hunkered in business parks across Los Angeles. But 20 years ago, just a few weeks after the 9/11 tragedy, a group of elite Hollywood figures and a handful of top U.S. Army brass met for a clandestine summit straight out of a Michael Crichton novel.
A lot of what transpired that night is still top secret, but this much we do know: One evening in October 2001, just weeks after al-Qaeda terrorists took down the Twin Towers in Manhattan and maimed the Pentagon, a group of about 30 of Hollywood’s top creatives — A-listers like Oliver Stone, “Law & Order” producer Dick Wolf, “Seven” director David Fincher, “NYPD Blue’s” David Milch and the late John Singleton, to name just a few — were quietly invited to mingle with high-level members of the U.S.