David Gordon Green is only the latest director attempting to bring the tragic events of Boston Marathon bombing to the big screen. Behind Boston Strong, to star and be produced by Mark Wahlberg, and Patriot's Day, an "intense thriller" following the aftermath of the Tsarnaev brothers, Green also steps up to the plate to helm Lionsgate's Stronger, based on the memoir of the same name by survivor Jeff Bauman with Brett Witter.
David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Scott Silver — the first two producers and the latter one of the screenwriters behind The Fighter — are all behind this third iteration of April 15, 2013 events. All three earned Oscar nominations for their work on the 2010 boxing film, and with Green concocting awards buzz himself for his latest, this fall's Our Brand is Crisis, chances are the studio will work hard to present this to the Academy's fancy. Ironically, though, Boston Strong also comes from fellow The Fighter screenwriters Eric Johnson and Paul Tamsey.
THR got the exclusive on this. The movie recounts the ordeals overcome by Bauman, a man waiting for his girlfriend at the finish line at the annual marathon when two pressure cooker bombs exploded, resulting in the lost of both of his legs as three people died and more than 260 other people were injured in the attack. It will also recount his rehabilitation process, and lead up to him becoming a key witness in bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's trail.
There's no word yet on when production should start, but the producers likely will get this one ready to film around or before this upcoming spring, in hopes to complete it for the awards season after this year's. And as both of the other movies have their director's chair currently unoccupied, particularly as Boston Strong recently lost director Daniel Espinosa (Safe House), Green's latest looks to be it's in the lead.
Though the filmmaker's resume consists primarily from indie dramas like Joe and Prince Avalanche and broad studio R-rated comedies like Pineapple Express and Your Highness, Green's hoped to push himself further into the studio system dramatically, and it doesn't look like he's having too much trouble so far. The director has a strong gift for developing character-based tales with real, wrought emotions, and hopefully this holsters this picture beyond simple Oscar bait.
In addition to Our Brand is Crisis, Green also just recently released Manglehorn, starring Al Pacino and Holly Hunter.
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