Betancourt’s tale captivates

Since Ingrid Betancourt’s liberation from jungle captivity in a daring rescue operation early this month, Ingrid-mania has swept the globe.

The saga of Betancourt, the former Colombian presidential candidate liberated after more than six years as a hostage of leftist guerrillas, has captivated Latin America and Europe and is generating major media interest in the United States. Book and film deals are in the works.

Hollywood sees box office potential in Betancourt’s ordeal, which she has described as a living hell, and its exotic subtexts: jungles, hostages, political intrigue, rifle-toting rebels and a strong-willed, religious woman callously separated from her two children. And, of course, her dramatic rescue.

Betancourt and 14 other hostages, including three U.S. defense contractors, were rescued July 2 through stealth and guise, Colombian authorities say. Officials have denied reports in Europe that a ransom of as much as $20 million was paid to the insurgent Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

“Once again, life trumps art,” said screenwriter and producer Larry Gelbart, who saw fertile script material in the rescue. “[It] seems as though it was ripped from a motion picture screen and rushed with all haste to the 11 o’clock news. . . . Such creative planning led to the best of all possible movie finishes: a happy ending.”

Betancourt has appeared on numerous television programs in the United States, including an interview with Larry King on CNN.

Art Monterastelli, a writer and producer in Los Angeles, likened the allure of the Colombian politician to that of Barack Obama or Bill Clinton.

“She’s intelligent, speaks four or five languages, has led an interesting life -- half jet set, half social commitment -- and is this incredibly attractive figure,” said Monterastelli. “She’s a media rock star.”

Betancourt’s tale “has it all,” said Jim McNamara, chairman of Miami-based Panamax films, a Spanish-language film producer.

“Her captors are ugly, ugly villains out of central casting,” McNamara said.

More Hollywood fodder: The Colombian press has documented the strain on Betancourt’s marriage while she was in captivity.

Creative Artists Agency of Los Angeles is representing Betancourt in any future book or film deals, in association with her French literary agent, Susannah Lea, said one industry source.

“She’s thinking about it,” said the source, who asked not to be identified because she was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

“For now she wants to spend time with her children and reflect on her newfound freedom, and on what she’s been through.”

In what is probably the most advanced film project, Venezuelan actress Patricia Velasquez has purchased the rights to “Searching for Ingrid,” written by Betancourt’s husband, Juan Carlos Lecompte. The memoir tracks Lecompte’s efforts to free his wife.

A much commented-upon reserve has developed between Lecompte and Betancourt. The released hostage’s generous display of hugs and kisses for well-wishers notably omitted a warm embrace for her husband of eight years.

“I would have preferred it if she had been a little more affectionate with me, not so cold,” Lecompte conceded to the Bogota daily El Tiempo. “[Her] love for me may have ended in the jungle.”

The Betancourt saga, Hollywood observers said, has provided a welcome jolt of excitement to a deal market that has been slowed by the looming actors strike, general economic malaise and lack of bank credit.

The three American hostages released with Betancourt, Marc Gonsalves, Keith Stansell and Thomas Howes, are also reportedly considering book and film deals.

Betancourt’s first decision will be whether to agree to cooperate on a “cheap TV movie that’s out in two months” or do a comprehensive book and film deal, said Monterastelli. Under the latter scenario, a movie probably would take a year and a half to reach theaters.

Betancourt will face pressure to get her story out while her rescue is fresh in the public’s memory.

But Monterastelli said, “She’s holding all the cards.”

From the day of her release, the 46-year-old Betancourt has appeared remarkably healthy and poised. She flashes a winning smile and seems thoroughly energized -- far from the wan, fragile figure pictured in a video last year while she was in captivity.

She was reported to be near death and wrote despairingly from captivity to her beloved mother, Yolanda Pulecio, a former Colombian beauty queen.

“I haven’t been eating, my appetite has shut down, my hair is falling out in clumps,” Betancourt wrote in a letter discovered late last year. “Life here is no life; it is a gruesome waste of time.”

That correspondence and a response written to her by her adult children were published this spring in a book, “Letters to My Mother: A Message of Love, A Plea for Freedom.” The publisher, Abrams Image, is reprinting the book and rushing it to market.

Meanwhile, Ecco will issue a paperback edition in October of “Until Death Do Us Part: My Struggle to Reclaim Colombia,” Betancourt’s blistering 2001 critique of national corruption. The publisher, which is an imprint of HarperCollins, plans an updated subtitle: “A Memoir by the Politician Recently Rescued from Colombian Rebels After Six Years in Captivity.”

The Paris daily Le Monde wrote of “generalized stupefaction” over Betancourt’s poise. She has French nationality via her first husband, father of her two children, Lorenzo, 19, and Melanie, 22. Betancourt lived in France as a child.

Even French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his pop-star wife, Carla Bruni, took a back seat to Betancourt when she arrived in Paris aboard a French government jet.

Venezuelan analyst Moises Naim has christened Betancourt “the Colombian Mandela,” a reference to Nelson Mandela’s emergence from captivity to become South Africa’s president.

Some have named her an early favorite in Colombia’s 2010 presidential elections. Betancourt has been coy about whether she will run.

“You might even have an epilogue,” producer McNamara said, “if she is elected president.”

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patrick.mcdonnell @latimes.com

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chris.kraul@latimes.com

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Times staff writers Josh Getlin and Matea Gold in New York contributed to this report.