According to Peter Berg (Battleship), his long-gestating passion project, ‘unapologetically patriotic Lone Survivor' recruits a trio of thesps along with Emmett/Furla Films is coming aboard to finance Navy SEALs flick.
Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch (John Carter, Battleship) and Wahlberg's Contraband co-star Ben Foster are in negotiations to play three of the story's four lead Navy SEALs.
The film is based on the non-fiction book Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10, by Marcus Luttrell. Berg's said way back in 2009:
It was pretty obvious to me [Universal] weren't jumping head over heels to make a war film in the Middle East right now. So they said, ‘What if you give us ‘Battleship' for July 2011, and we guarantee you'll follow with ‘Lone Survivor'?
Well, a deal is a deal and Universal Pictures, which developed the film, will distribute as well.
It's the true story of an incident in 2005 when Luttrell and his Navy SEAL team members fought to stay alive after being ambushed in Afghanistan by Taliban forces during a covert mission in the Hindu Kush mountain region, where the team went to kill a terrorist leader very close to Osama Bin Laden. But that's just half of the story — Wahlberg will play Luttrell.
Berg told Deadline:
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.
Battleship director is looking at a fall start date for the film.
