WASHINGTON (December 20, 2012)--Three U.S. senators who take exception to the new movie "Zero Dark Thirty" say in a letter to the head of Sony Pictures Entertainment that the film is misleading and "grossly inaccurate" in suggesting that torture produced the tip that led the U.S. military to track down and eliminate Osama bin Laden.

Senators Dianne Feinstein, Carl Levin and John McCain of the Senate Intelligence Committee signed the letter.

McCain in particular has insisted that the waterboarding of al-Qaeda's No. 3 leader did not provide information that led to the bin Laden compound in Pakistan.

The senators say that Sony has an obligation to alter the movie.

The filmmakers disputed the senators' interpretation.

Director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal said in a statement that they depicted "a variety of controversial practices and intelligence methods that were used," and that the film showed that no single method was responsible in the successful manhunt for bin Laden.

"Zero Dark Thirty" is opening in New York and Los Angeles this week and opens across the country next month.