ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan may consider granting permission for the shooting of a film about slain U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl, an official said on Thursday.
Police last month detained crew members who were shooting for the movie "A Mighty Heart" near the hotel in the southern city of Karachi from where the Wall Street Journal reporter was abducted in early 2002.
Actress Angelina Jolie will star in the movie based on Mariane Pearl's book on the ordeal of her husband.
Officials said the Karachi shoot had been stopped because filming permission had not been granted.
"They didn't apply for permission. They just came in without any permission and started shooting. This is not the way," the home secretary of the southern province of Sindh, Gholam Mohtaram, told Reuters. Karachi is the capital of Sindh.
"They made ordinary people wear police uniforms and started shooting, which was objectionable."
Mohtaram said the government would consider permission for shooting if request was made "through proper channels."
Pearl, 38, was kidnapped in Karachi in January 2002 while researching a story on Islamist militants. He was later killed.
English filmmaker Michael Winterbottom, famed for such war-based films as "Welcome to Sarajevo" and "The Road to Guantanamo," is directing the movie.
Oscar-winning U.S. actress Jolie visited Pakistan as the U.N. refugee agency's goodwill ambassador last year in an expression of support for the survivors of a devastating earthquake.
