I have trained myself to roll my eyes every time I read the words “pirate film” in the headline of an article, but this is different: we’re not dealing with swashbuckling Jack Sparrow or a gaunt Kiera Knightley, but instead real life Somali pirates that have peppered the news for over a year.
Columbia Pictures is gearing up for a film that will center on “captain Richard Phillips, who was held hostage by four Somali pirates and was subsequently rescued by a group of Navy SEALs.” The film will be based on Phillips currently unpublished autobiographical tale “A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs and Five Dangerous Days.”
Here’s how swift and uncompassionate the world of film is: Columbia picked up the rights to Phillips’ story mere weeks after his rescue, which seems slightly absurd.
The film will be produced by Michael De Luca, Kevin Spacey, Dana Brunetti and Scott Rudin, and the screenplay will be handled by Billy Ray, who recently wrote State of Play, Breach, and Flightplan.
It’s an interesting idea for a film, or at least, interesting enough. I think the world is intrigued by the lives of these Somali pirates, but hopefully this isn’t a grim and depressing tale.
