Seemingly dedicated to stepping away from the Transformers franchise, Michael Bay has been focusing his efforts on **13 Hours, a film that promises to be entirely free of giant robots, but sure to be closely watched by a very different audience. He now has John Krasinski in talks to play a Navy SEAL.
Chuck Hogan, who co-wrote The Strain trilogy with Guillermo del Toro and worked on the TV adaptation, is responsible for the script, which is sourced from Mitchell Zuckoff’s book. The focus will be on six members of a security team who fought to defend the US State Department Special Mission Compound when terrorists attacked the place. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and one of the compound’s workers died in the initial assault and two contractors were killed during another attack on a nearby CIA facility.
The attack, which happened on the 11th anniversary of September 11, and the US administration’s response has since become a political talking point, and any film about the incident is sure to be controversial.
Krasinski is not the only actor interested in this one, as Bay has been auditioning the likes of Woody Harrelson, J.K. Simmons, Walton Goggins and Shea Whigham, but he’s the man who, according to Variety’s sources, most impressed the director during an early meeting. Expect more casting to follow soon. Outside of this new potential job, Krasinski will next be seen in Cameron Crowe’s so-far untitled romantic drama and is busy finishing his latest directing job, comedy drama The Hollars.