February 15, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Opens this Friday in area theaters
Hiller co-writes ‘Breach,’ film about FBI traitor
by SARAH KLEM

Adam Mazer (left), of Northeast Philadelphia, and William Rotko, of Chestnut Hill, co-wrote the story and screenplay for Breach, a major motion picture from Universal about the greatest security breach in U.S. history.

When William Rotko was a child growing up in Chestnut Hill, he played for an area Little League team, and his name often appeared in the Local. When he was a teenager, he and his friends spent their nights wandering up and down Germantown Avenue the way suburban kids wander around malls these days. On Monday, Feb. 5 of this year, Rotko and some of those very same friends attended the Los Angeles premier of Breach, a movie written by Rotko and writing partner Adam Mazer, a native of Northeast Philadelphia.

Rotko grew up on the border of Chestnut Hill and Mt. Airy. He graduated from Penn Charter High School and attended Roanoke College in Virginia, very briefly. “I don’t think I was ready for college,” he recalled. “I was not focused or disciplined.” Although his time at Roanoke was short, it did have a lasting effect because it was there that his interest in theater was piqued.

In the spring of 1989, Rotko moved to Los Angeles to be an actor and studied under the legendary Stella Adler for close to four years. During this time he realized acting was not the right thing for him. “I felt more comfort in writing and taking on the whole story. Whether the story is true or untrue, writers start off with nothing and end up with something grand; they are there through the whole experience.”

He met Mazer in 1992. “We were living in the same building. I was living in an apartment the size of a can opener. Adam was living with three or four friends.” Mazer was sitting out in front of the building when Rotko struck up a conversation. “He was from Northeast Philly, so right away we had something in common. Here we are, two Philly guys in California. We bonded over being Eagles’ fans. We started watched the Eagles and then the Phillies games together.”

Young FBI trainee Eric O’Neill (Ryan Phillippe) comforts his wife, Juliana (Caroline Dhavernas), in the thriller Breach, co-written by a Chestnut Hiller. It opens this Friday in area theaters. (Photo by Michael Gibson)

Fast-forward to almost a decade later. Mazer and Rotko are sitting in their office writing another screenplay based on a true story, this one about a golfer, when a guy comes in and says, “I think my bother has an interesting story to tell.” The gentleman’s brother was Eric O’Neill.

The story was about the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history, and the man responsible for it had just been caught. It was 2001, and news was everywhere that Eric O’Neill’s partner at the FBI, Robert Hanssen, had been arrested, convicted and sentenced to life without parole for treason. Over a period of more than two decades, Hanssen systematically and deliberately sold our nation’s key intelligence to the former Soviet Union. “We flew to D.C. to meet with O’Neill,” said the Chestnut Hill native. “After the first hour of interviewing I was terrified to walk to my car.”

Mazer and Rotko interviewed O’Neill and his wife for a couple of hours over several days. After they flew back to L.A., they spent several months working on the story. “It was very involved, but we also had to make sure what we were doing was legal. We actually ended up hiring a law firm from Philadelphia,” Rotko explained. “It is much more difficult to write a true story than a fictional story for me personally.”

Because Breach is about integrity and morality, the Chestnut Hill native felt an additional responsibility to stick to the truth and fictionalize the story as little as possible. Billy Ray, the film’s director, came in about two years into the project. Ray was just coming off his success with Shattered Glass, a movie which deals with a lot of similar themes as Breach, including ethical dilemmas. (Shattered Glass was about journalist Stephen Glass, who sold fabricated stories to some of the nation’s major news outlets.) “Ray came in, took the script and wanted to make some changes on how the story spools out. When I read his first draft, I loved it and knew Billy Ray had a wonderful grasp of what the picture was about.”

FBI agent O’Neill, who had been assigned to spy on his boss (Robert Hanssen), eventually found out that Hanssen was selling government secrets to the Russians — and for much less money than you might suspect (not millions). Eventually, Hanssen made a deal with authorities to cooperate and spill everything in return for a sentence of life in prison without parole, instead of the death penalty.

According to former FBI Director Louis Freeh, when asked about Hanssen, “A betrayal of trust by an FBI agent — who is not only sworn to enforce the law but specifically to help protect our nation’s security — is particularly abhorrent. This kind of criminal conduct represents the most traitorous action imaginable against a country governed by the rule of law. It also strikes at the heart of everything the FBI represents: the commitment of over 28,000 honest and dedicated men and women who work diligently to earn the trust and confidence of the American people every day.”

O’Neill recently told another news organization, “People were crying when he (Hanssen) got arrested. These haggard, crew-cutted, blocky-suited, tough-as-nails … agents were just bawling when this happened. It was such a devastating thing … It was like your best friend just had raped your wife and then your daughter, and it was all on video.”

Ray’s involvement in the movie attracted some A-list actors, which was important to getting the kind of publicity and distribution that could conceivably make it a blockbuster. O’Neill is being portrayed by Ryan Phillippe, Hanssen by Chris Cooper, and Laura Linney plays O’Neill’s boss, Special Agent Kate Burroughs.

Up next for the Chestnut Hill native, he is finishing two pilots; one for NBC and another for A&E. “Writing a pilot involves using a whole different writing muscle.” Rotko said. Waterfall, the one for NBC, is a 24-esque show about people in a water park that is taken over by terrorists. It details how these people bond in such a terrifying situation. Unlike 24, however, viewers will only get the perspective from those trapped in the water park.

The pilot for A&E, Informant, is a little bit closer to the work Rotko did on Breach. “It is about two FBI operatives. Both are undercover in D.C., and they are living the lives of whomever it is they are going to bring down. It’s a good show.”

Rotko also has a few film projects he is sitting on, but he hasn’t decided which one is next. “I am trying to be real patient about what the next movie is instead of jumping in just because the money is there.”

And while he is definitely not going back into acting, Rotko admits directing could be in his future. “You can’t direct by default. You have to want it. You have to want that type of recognition and success. However, this opportunity has made me think that it is a possibility.”

Breach opens in area theaters this Friday, Feb. 16, and it is rated PG-13.