Considering how much of a hot button topic Taliban POW Bowe Bergdahl has become on news stations, it shouldn't be too crazy to hear that one movie based on his story is in the works. But hearing that there are two is a little surprising.
But, according to Deadline, there are, indeed, two separate films in the works about the events surrounding Bergdahl's life. It was first reported earlier today that director Kathryn Bigelow and writer/producer Mark Boal, the Academy-award winning team behind The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, were in the early stages of making their next political thriller on his life. But, not long after, Deadline updated their story to note that director Todd Field (Little Children, In the Bedroom) was also getting ready to make his own film on the POW's recently highly-publicized events.
Details on both films are minimal at this point. What is known about the Bigelow film is Annapurna Picture's Megan Ellison, the producer who worked on Zero Dark Thirty, as well as other recent well-acclaimed films like Her, American Hustle, The Master and the upcoming Foxcatcher, will be returning to work with them. She will be working alongside Boal's newly formed production company Page One, and has first look at Boal's screenplay, when he does get around to writing it.
Field's film, meanwhile, is based on the article "America's Last Prisoner of War," published in Rolling Stone magazine and written by late journalist Michael Hastings. Fox Searchlight acquired the rights to the article, as they are working towards finalizing Field's deal for the film.
Should both films make their way onto the silver screen, it seems that Field's movie will be produced and finished first, as Bigelow and Boal are generally known to wait until the full story is finished before getting themselves gearing towards production. Of course, they are no strangers to having to work around real life events on their working scripts, as they notriously rewrote their screenplay for Zero Dark Thirty after the news was released that Osama Bin Laden had been killed and captured.
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