A drama showing the courage of workers on board the Deepwater Horizon rig in the moments leading up to April's disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico looks set for the big screen.
Hollywood has picked up the rights to a New York Times article published in December, Deepwater Horizon's Final Hours, which evoked the "raw emotion" experienced by those on board prior to the explosion which caused the spill. Eleven workers were killed and another 17 injured when methane gas from the well shot up out of the drill column and caught fire, creating one of the worst environmental catastrophes in US history.
"This film will portray the great heroism that took place last year on the Deepwater Horizon rig and how colleagues so courageously came to each other's aide," said producer Erik Feig of Summit Entertainment. "This piece in The New York Times evoked the raw emotion these brave men experienced and endured throughout the tragedy that took place in April of last year, and we hope to evoke the same emotions for our audience with this movie."
Ricky Strauss of film company Participant, which is also involved in the project, added: "This is a perfect fit for us – a suspenseful and inspiring real-life account of everyday people whose values are tested in the face of an impending environmental disaster."
The New York Times article, written by David Barstow, David Rohde and Stephanie Saul, depicts events on board the rig in striking and dramatic language. "Searing heat baked the lifeboat deck," reads part of its opening section. "Crew members, certain they were about to be cooked alive, scrambled into enclosed lifeboats for shelter, only to find them like smoke-filled ovens.
"Men admired for their toughness wept. Several said their prayers and jumped into the oily seas 60 feet below. An overwhelmed young crew member, Andrea Fleytas, finally screamed what so many were thinking:
"We're going to die!"
Matthew Sand, screenwriter of American By Blood, The Summoner and The Red Star, will be handed the task of adapting the article. The project does not yet have a start date and there are no casting details available.
