MUMBAI: Columbia Pictures has picked up the US distribution rights of Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal’s project regarding Navy Seal Team 6 and its hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Boal is incorporating the latest developments into the script.

The duo behind the Oscar-winning thriller The Hurt Locker have been working on the project for some time and were eyeing a summer start when real life events -- Bin Laden’s killing by the black ops team -- overtook the project. 

Boal and Bigelow are producing the film along with Megan Ellison of Annapurna Pictures, who are the financers.

The shoot of the film that is slated to begin in late summer, will be released in the US in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to the studio.