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Will Northwest Flight 253 hero take flight in Hollywood?

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Last week the world was introduced to Jasper Schuringa, the 32-year-old Dutchman who helped stop a suspected terrorist from igniting an explosive device on Northwest Airlines Flight 253. He made headlines after helping the cabin crew subdue 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallah, who allegedly tried (and failed) to detonate a plastic bomb as the plane prepared to land in Detroit. Other passengers then applauded Schuringa as he walked back to his seat, according to a CNN report.

But before last week, the formerly unknown hero had spent the last few years seeking a different kind of fame: as a filmmaker.

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We wanted to find out more about Schuringa’s film credits and wondered whether last week’s incident might raise his profile in Hollywood. Schuringa isn’t a registered member of the Director’s Guild of America, but we did find him on IMDB, where he is listed as a crew member on two small films.

Most recently, he served as an assistant director on ‘Teed Off Too,’ a 2006 National Lampoon film that captures hidden-camera pranks pulled on unsuspecting golfers. In 2004, he was the first assistant director on ‘The Significance of Seventeen,’ a film about a man trying to figure out the importance of numbers as they relate to a moment when he is fated to meet a woman.

Although it remains to be seen whether Schuringa’s act of heroism will do anything for his career behind the camera, he certainly seems to be getting the hang of playing hardball with the media.

In the meantime, here’s Schuringa being interviewed on CNN:

-- Amy Kaufman

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