In July, one of the most daring hostage rescue attempts of all time was successfully pulled off in Columbia, when military rescuers succeeded in freeing 15 hostages – including former presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt – from the clutches of the notoriously brutal rebels, FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces Of Colombia).
It was a daring raid involving subterfuge and some serious undercover work – to read more about it, Time has an excellent article which you can read by clicking here.
And it’s taken about five minutes for a film version to be given the greenlight.
Screen Gems has hired Jessica Postigo to write Operation Checkmate – the Colombian name for the operation was Jaque, which means check in Spanish – based on the events leading up to, and including the rescue.
Simon Brand – not to be confused with Empire’s own Simon Braund – will direct the thriller, which will aim to depict the last 22 minutes of the rescue in real-time, which is a gimmick somewhat diminished in impact by the likes of 24. But we hope it works here.