THR reports that Graham King‘s GK Films has tapped veteran screenwriter Robert Towne to scribe an original World War II screenplay called The Battle of Britain.
The film will be based on an original idea by King, inspired by the famous air battle over London between the outmanned-and-gunned Royal Air Force and the German Luftwaffe.
“My father lived in London and watched this spectacular dog fight over the city, so bringing this story of endurance and triumph to the big screen means a great deal to me,” King said.
It’s obviously a personal story for King, and it resembles director John Boorman‘s terrific 1987 film Hope and Glory, based partially on the director’s childhood in London during the blitz of World War II. Bringing the legendary Towne aboard certainly adds a lot of prestige – he’s the screenwriter responsible for Chinatown, The Last Detail and Shampoo, he directed the almost-great Chinatown sequel The Two Jakes, he doctored damn near everything during the 60’s and 70’s (including The Godfather), and his more recent credits include Days of Thunder and Mission: Impossible. Towne is working on an original pilot for FX and Scott Free called Compadre.
Coming off the animated hit Rango for Paramount, GK Films has three more releases due this year: The Rum Diary, which sees Johnny Depp once more channeling Hunter S. Thompson and opens on October 28, Martin Scorcese‘s okay-looking 3D film Hugo, opening November 23, and Angelina Jolie‘s directing debut (and totally not a vanity project, we swear) In The Land of Blood and Honey, releasing December 23.
Robert Towne is simply one of the greatest screenwriters ever. There, I said it. His classical approach to storytelling may be just what this iconic story needs, as long a strong director boards the project as well. (There’s a reason producer Robert Evans paired Towne’s Chinatown script with the one and only Roman Polanski.)
What do you think of Towne tackling the Battle of Britain?