It’s been over three decades since cinema living legend Clint Eastwood traveled back in time to WWII (and swiped some Nazi treasure with Donald Sutherland), but he’ll be commanding the troops for his next film Flags of Our Fathers.
My idol is producing and directing the story of those Easy Company soldiers made famous by that flag-raising photo from Mount Suribachi in the battle of Iwo Jima. So far his squad of fightin’ guys consists of Ryan Phillippe, Jesse Bradford (of Bring It On and Clockstoppers), and Adam Beach, who already survived the Pacific Theater in Windtalkers. I assume they’re the three who weren’t later killed in action – part of some 26,000 American casualties during the 36-day battle (sorry if that’s a spoiler for those who are unfamiliar with the history details or have just never seen a war movie before) – so we can probably expect the remaining ranks to be filled out by slightly less familiar faces. At the very least the whole thing will keep Dale Dye busy for a few months.
Some interesting tidbits: the flag in the photo had some history of its own – it had been rescued from one of the vessels sunk during the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was also the second flag erected at the site, a replacement for the smaller original which the Secretary of the Navy had decided he wanted as a souvenir (yes, seriously).
Anyway, the Dreamworks/Warner Bros. film is based on the book by James Bradley, the son of one of six soldiers immortalized, with a screenplay from Clint’s Million Dollar Baby scribe Paul Haggis. Steven “War is Hell” Spielberg is also producing, with shooting scheduled to begin in August.
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