Francis Lawrence is attached to direct an as-yet untitled movie for Warner Bros. about the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary riot of 1987.
In case you didn’t know, that was a riot so hardcore – involving Cuban and American prisoners who took 100 staff members hostage at the maximum-security facility – that the FBI’s hostage rescue team couldn’t handle it, forcing them to call in Delta Force to kick ass, take names, and restore the peace.
If you’re thinking, ‘that sounds like a siege movie mixed with Black Hawk Down’, you’re not a million miles off the mark, for the project originated with Mark Bowden, who came across the story while researching the Black Hawk Down book.
Too busy to take on the movie himself, he enlisted his brother, Aaron, and David Keane, his partner at production company Wild Eyes. Eventually, it found its way to Michael De Luca, and then a bidding war erupted, which resulted in Warner Bros. stumping up the cash.
Ari Rubin will write the screenplay, but it seems like this could be some way off, with Lawrence still developing Water For Elephants. But if this comes even remotely close to the adrenaline levels of Black Hawk Down, we’d recommend that he shift focus to this, immediately.