Steven Spielberg's picture about the aftermath of the 1972 Olympics massacre has begun production.

Written by Tony Kushner, the film portrays the events following the 1972 games in Munich in which Palestinians killed 11 Israeli athletes.

Eric Bana (Hulk) stars as the Mossad agent who leads a team of specialists to track down those responsible for the deaths. Also featuring in the movie are Daniel Craig (Layer Cake), Mathieu Kassovitz (Birthday Girl), Ciaran Hinds (Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera) and Hanns Zischler (Walk on Water).

Spielberg said of the project: "The attack at Munich by Black September and the Israeli response to it was a defining moment in the modern history of the Middle East. It's easy to look back at historic events with the benefit of hindsight. What's not so easy is to try to see things as they must have looked to people at the time. Viewing Israel's response to Munich through the eyes of the men who were sent to avenge that tragedy adds a human dimension to a horrific episode that we usually think about only in political or military terms.

He continued: "By experiencing how the implacable resolve of these men to succeed in their mission slowly gave way to troubling doubts about what they were doing, I think we can learn something important about the tragic stand-off we find ourselves in today."

The film is due for release in the US on December 23.