After tackling a true-life story with Sully, Clint Eastwood is setting his sights on another: that of kidnapped American aid worker Jessica Buchanan.
Warner Bros, Eastwood's longtime home studio, has optioned Impossible Odds, the memoir written by Buchanan, her husband Erik Landemalm, and Anthony Flacco. While it's a beat early in the development stages, Eastwood is looking at it as his next project.
Brian Helgeland, who worked with Eastwood on the Oscar-winning 2003 film Mystic River, as well as 2002's Blood Work, is writing the script.
Buchanan was working in Somalia when, in October 2011, she and a colleague found themselves caught by land pirates, sold out by their escort and protector. For the next 93 days, she and her co-worker lived in the desert while Buchanan’s husband, Landemalm, tried to work various agencies to have his wife rescued. In the end, President Barack Obama approved the engagement of SEAL Team 6, which parachuted into the area, killed all the pirates and extracted the pair.
The story had already been eyed for the big screen in 2013 when the book was optioned by Clear Pictures Entertainment and Silver Reel Partners, which also secured Buchanan and Landemalm’s life rights.
Greg Silverman and Julia Spiro will oversee the project for Warners.
Sully stars Tom Hanks as Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, the US Airlines pilot who became a hero after landing his passenger plane on the Hudson River. The movie, which cost $60 million to make, has soared to over $107 million domestically and follows Eastwood’s 2014 hit, American Sniper, which starred Bradley Cooper in the telling of the heroic true-life story of sniper Chris Kyle.
The one-two punch of those movies show that Eastwood, at 86 years old, is settling into a groove focusing on American-bred stories that clearly resonate with domestic audiences.
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