On April 20, 2010 the Mobile Offshore Drilling Unit known as ‘Deepwater Horizon’ exploded 40 miles southeast from the Louisiana coast, killing 11 workers and injuring 16 others. This explosion, and subsequent fire, which caused the MODU to sink, was the catalyst for the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that continued for over three months before finally being capped. This was a disaster of epic proportions and currently stands as the second largest environmental disaster in U.S. history (right behind the ‘Dust Bowl’ which went on for most of the 30’s) and BP, the oil company behind the drilling, has yet to fully escape from the negative PR that surrounded the event.
With a story this big and far-reaching, it should come as no surprise that Hollywood came a knocking to turn it into a movie. Last year Summit Entertainment partnered with Participant Media and Imagenation Abu Dabi to option the rights to a December 25, 2010 New York Times article that covered the event titled ‘Deepwater Horizon’s Final Hours’ (which you can read here) and now a year later, the companies have zeroed in on a director. Deadline reports that Ric Roman Waugh is in negotiations to direct the movie adaptation of the real-life tragedy, now going under the simple name of Deepwater Horizon. The movie version will focus on the workers aboard the Deepwater Horizon itself as they struggle to survive after the explosion. Waugh made his name in Hollywood as a stuntman, working on movies like 1990’s Total Recall and has transitioned into directing with films like 2008’s direct to DVD drama Felon starring Stephen Dorff and Val Kilmer and the upcoming movie Snitch starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Deepwater Horizon was adapted into a movie by screenwriter Matthew Sand who wrote the 2009 action/martial arts film Ninja Assassin. No word yet on anything else pertaining to the movie quite yet.
So judging by the talent involved and what the focus is going to be on, it sounds like Summit and Participant are looking to turn this very real disaster into action movie fodder sprinkled with a heavy-handed “yay for the human spirit” message. I’m not necessarily okay with that, but I could see it having an Act of Valor-style resonance for people who pronounce America as “‘merica” unironically. It is what it is. I just hope that Deepwater Horizon will have some legitimate weight to it, it’d be a damn shame if it gets turned into an empty shell meant for consumption and little else.
Do you think it’s too soon for a movie like Deepwater Horizon or is a movie the perfect way to memorialize the events?