Director Peter Berg is circling back around to the war project Lone Survivor, which he first signed on to direct back in August 2007.
The project is based on the non-fiction book by Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell, which recounts a mission his SEAL team undertook to kill a terrorist leader, although they were ambushed in the Hindu Kush mountains and struggled to stay alive. The story is quite similar to the successful SEAL Team Six mission which resulted in the death of terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden. Peter Berg said, in fact, it was Osama Bin Laden's death that revived this project once again at Universal Pictures. Here's what he had to say below.
"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 film will be a bit like Black Hawk Down, but it will focus on the quartet, which is fewer guys than that film. The mission was similar to the assassination mission that got Bin Laden, but things got complicated when they ran into three kids and an old man. Under the rules of engagement, they could have killed them, but they decided to let them go and take their chances, even though they knew these people would likely talk."
Peter Berg recently shot the board-game adaptation Battleship, which is due for release on May 25, 2012, and it is said the director has asked Battleship star Taylor Kitsch to portray one of the SEAL team members.
Peter Berg also adapted the Marcus Luttrell book himself, which he will direct from. Production is being eyed for a January start.