The Boston Marathon bombings was an American tragedy that struck everyone in 2013. And yet despite how recent it happened, Hollywood is already working on a movie, Variety reports.
According to the article by film reporter Justin Kroll, actor Casey Affleck is the first cast member to be officially attached to the project, and one of the film’s producers alongside writer John Ridley (12 Years A Slave), and producer Dorothy Aufiero (The Fighter). The screenplay was written by The Fighter scribes Eric Johnson and Paul Tamasy, and is adapted from the book “Boston Strong” by Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge.
“Affleck’s attachment should help in jump-starting the project as the producers get it ready to take out to studios in the next week,” Kroll writes. “Tamasy and Johnson were still undecided on whether to make it a movie or TV series when they optioned the rights to the book in July 2013. EOne Television came last April on to develop it as a miniseries, but those plans fell apart earlier this summer.”
I couldn’t care less about Affleck’s casting. He’s a fine young actor, collaborating with his older brother Ben on many projects, including Good Will Hunting and Gone Baby Gone, and also featured in the Steven Soderbergh Ocean’s heist trilogy. I don’t know what role they’re going to cast him in or if he is the lead or not. It doesn’t matter to me. He’s a good actor and he will handle well whatever he is given.
I’m more frustrated that a movie is even happening in the first place. Is there no respect for the dead? Movies based on real-life tragedies will do one of two things to the stories they are adapting: honor it, or exploit it. Movies like Schindler’s List, Glory, and United 93 honored and stayed true to the stories they were adapting, whereas movies like Pearl Harbor, W., and Remember Me used it as a selling point. That’s not to say that Boston Strong will be one or the other, but when the event occurred less than two years ago, I’m not instantly feeling like the filmmakers are giving it the space it deserves. I felt the same way toward Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty, and that was a victory for the states rather than a tragedy.
What do you guys think? Should there be a movie based on the Boston Marathon bombings so soon, or should they give it room to breathe? Comment below, let me know.
-David Dunn
SOURCE: Variety, TIME
DAVID DUNN 