LATEST NEWS
Peter Berg Will Direct Middle East Navy SEAL Thriller 'Lone Survivor'
by Ethan Anderton
May 18, 2011
Source: Deadline
With the death of Osama Bin Laden at the hands of Seal Team Six being a story of interest around the world, films about the dangerous missions of Navy SEALs are all the rage in Hollywood right now. Of course, Kathryn Bigelow will tell the story of the hunting and killing of the infamous Al Qaeda mastermind, but now another project about a team of Navy SEALs hunting another high profile terrorist leader is coming together after years of development. Deadline reports director Peter Berg (Hancock, The Kingdom) will be at the helm of Lone Survivor, an adaptation of Marcus Luttrell's book of the same name. More details below.
In addition, the film will reunite Berg with Taylor Kitsch (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), the star of his forthcoming board game adaptation Battleship (the film that Universal Pictures convinced Berg to direct in exchange for making Lone Survivor at a later date). The actor will be playing one of four Navy SEALS in the story about Luttrell and his team who fought to stay alive after being ambushed in Afghanistan in 2005 by Taliban forces during a covert mission in the Hindu Kush mountain region, where the team went to kill a terrorist leader.
Berg crafted a decent military thriller with The Kingdom before now, but for this film, the director actually spent time with a SEAL team in Iraq for a whole month, and he's been extremely passionate about the project ever since. It's funny how two years ago the studio was apprehensive about a project like this, but the gung-ho patriotic attitude after Osama Bin Laden's death now makes this project a hot commodity. Berg even says, "They leaned right into it with me. Bin Laden's death has cleared the way for this, a movie that will be an unapologetically patriotic film that honors and pays homage to an incredible group of badass guys who do this."
The fact that this is a true story from the battlefront makes it even more interesting, but I hope we're not looking at another long trend of war based dramas like the slew of films that hit during the Iraq War. Far too many dramas like In the Valley of Elah, Stop Loss and Home of the Brave were released during the war, and even though great films like The Hurt Locker and The Messenger also came out of that trend, that doesn't mean Hollywood needs to throw a handful of Navy SEAL darts until one hits the bullseye. Thoughts?
4 Comments
1
Afghanistan is not the middle east, it is located in south central asia also the hurt locker was an innaccurate portrayal of Iraq. hopefully the novel is accurately potrayed and not glamored up by hollywood.
Dolivares03 on May 18, 2011
2
Lone Survivor is a great, gripping book. All the more intense, because it is totally real. An amazing story of incredible heroism, and sacrifice. I hope this movie does Mr. Luttrell justice. Looking forward to this film. I highly recommend reading this book first.
Jscullion2 on May 18, 2011
3
Woah! Didn't expect to see this headline anytime. Great, great book. Amazing story, which is just itching to be made into a movie. Marcus Luttrell is a great hero.
Jman571 on May 18, 2011
4
What happened to Dune? What happended to Battleship? Wasn't Berg supposed to be making these? Nobody gives a shit about Iraq/Afghanistan any more.
Stevebeer60 on Jun 1, 2011
New comments are no longer allowed on this post.
FEATURED POSTS
FOLLOW FS HERE
Follow Alex's main account on Twitter:
Add our posts to your Feedly › click here
Get all the news sent on Telegram 
LATEST TO WATCH