Terrorists have taken over Washington, D.C., the White House is in ruins, the president has been taken hostage, and it's all the fault of former Berks residents Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt.  Of course it's all fiction, but the married screenwriting duo promises that it won't look that way on screen when their movie "Olympus Has Fallen" opens Friday at theaters across the country, including several in the Reading area. The action-thriller is ripped from the post-9/11 headlines, with a huge helping of imagination and character.

Rothenberger came up with the idea of having the White House taken over by terrorists nine years and nearly two dozen scripts ago.  "I thought I had an interesting character with an agent in his prime," said Rothenberger, a former Boyertown resident. "And I had been a fan of the 'Die Hard' movies."  "Olympus Has Fallen" tells the story of disgraced Secret Service agent Mike Banning trying to save the day and his reputation when the White House is destroyed by terrorists and the president is taken hostage. Banning, played by Gerard Butler, who liked the movie so much he's one of its producers, had been relegated to desk duty after an incident with the first family ended badly. His redemption lies in the struggle to save the White House, the president and the country. And the disasters keep coming.

Benedikt, formerly of Exeter Township (by way of Reykjavik, Iceland) and Rothenberger worked on the script together. The pair met in a screenwriting class in Philadelphia in 2000 and have collaborated since then. While they have come close to selling screenplays, "Olympus Has Fallen," is their first script to be developed into a full-length feature film.  And while the timeline from sale to screen was pretty quick (the script sold in March, 2012 and the movie comes out Friday), Rothenberger and Benedikt's overnight success took nearly a decade.  "We both had corporate jobs and would get up early to write," said Benedikt of her 4 a.m. wake-up time. "You had to find a way to fit it in."  Success came in fits and starts, though, always giving them hope that this was what they were intended to do.

In 2002 Rothenberger won the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting for the Korean War epic, "The Chosin," and that allowed him to quit his corporate job and devote himself full time to writing.  And rewriting.  "Olympus Has Fallen" was rewritten four times between getting an agent to represent it in 2011 and when it sold in 2012.  "And then we rewrote it eight more times," said Rothenberger, thanks to input from director Antoine Fuqua and key actors and producers. "That's 12 full rewrites."

The writers were on site in Shreveport, La., where a partial model of the White House was built (and destroyed) for the film, and they got to mingle with leading man Butler. The film also stars Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, Dylan McDermott, Angela Bassett and Melissa Leo.  Intensive discussions led to notepads full of changes, but it was worth it to be open to those changes, they said, and they are very proud of the film.
"We've only seen the rough cut," Benedikt said, "But it was excellent."

As with most artists, the couple has relied on family and friends for support during the lean and less hopeful times. Benedikt's mother, Sigridur "Sigga" Benediktsdottir of Reading, brother Marco Soto and best friend Andrea Funk are planning a family party to celebrate the opening on Friday in Reading that will include Rothenberger's mom Joyce of New Berlinville.  "Our only wish is that Creighton's late father, George C. Rothenberger, and my late brother, Stefan Soto, could be here to celebrate with us," Katrin said.  It's likely they'll hear the celebrating wherever they are, though, as the $80 million movie is on track to be a blockbuster.  And it will give Benedikt and Rothernberger the opportunity to continue to work on their next script - a thriller with a supernatural twist.

"We were out here for six years," Benedikt said of the couple's move to Newport Beach, Calif., in 2007. "With no money coming in. We were down to our last $5,000 when we sold the script."