I have an
affinity for political talk radio, both right and left, and while you have to put up with a lot of bloviating, you sometimes happen upon a remarkable story that doesn’t get a lot of attention elsewhere and makes it all worthwhile. A few months ago, an
ex-Navy SEAL named Marcus Luttrell started making the rounds of a few shows
promoting his new book, Lone Survivor. It’s the story of how
his 4-man sniper team in
got discovered by Taliban militants and engaged about 200 or so of them.
Ultimately, every member of the team died except for Luttrell, who was shot
multiple times and filled with shrapnel, drug himself miles away from the
fight, and found refuge in a small Afghan village that helped keep him hidden
until he could be rescued. That shorthand doesn’t really do the story justice,
but when you hear or read Luttrell’s account, it’s hard not to think of it in
cinematic terms.
Turns we
won’t have long to wait in terms of seeing
it that way, either. Peter Berg has just snapped up this guy’s story to make
for Universal, and it will, in fact, be his next movie. Apparently, Berg got on
really well with Luttrell having used Navy SEAL personnel for the upcoming
political actioner The Kingdom. And with Berg quickly evolving into a first-rate
director, I have little doubt he’s going to ace this assignment as well. One of the
best things about the story is that Luttrell doesn’t survive due to expert gun
play or the US Cavalry arriving – it’s lowly villagers, some of whom were
sorely tempted by bounties and threat of violent reprisal, to turn him over to
the Taliban, who saved the day.
Berg’s
going to be writing the script as well. I imagine with the strike accelerating
all things
Universal will be moving on this pretty soon, so stay tuned for updates. This
just jumped to my “Most Anticipated” list for 2008.