Kitsch, who once portrayed high school football star Tim Riggins in the Emmy award winning NBC show Friday Night Lights is also starred as John Carter in the Disney film John Carter.
Universal PicturesTaylor Kitsch, who stars as the title character in Disney’s upcoming sci-fi tentpole John Carter, is in talks to play Afghanistan war hero Marcus Luttrell in Lone Survivor, Pete Berg‘s adaptation of Luttrell’s account of a Navy SEAL mission gone bad.
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Sources confirm that Mark Wahlberg and Ben Foster also are in talks to board the project, which Berg has been developing since 2007, when Universal bought the book and life rights for $2 million against $3 million.
War movies fell out of favor in Hollywood a few years ago after such high-profile projects as Green Zone failed to ignite audiences, so Berg moved on. But the project this week got a surge when Emmet/Furla Films agreed to come aboard as financier. Universal will distribute.
Survivor recounts how in 2005 Luttrell and three other SEALs were on a reconnaissance mission near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. They came across an old man and three boys, and while knowing that it could jeopardize their lives, the commandos let the group pass. The act of mercy backfired and soon the team was under attack by a small Taliban army. Luttrell was the only one who survived. A later firefight led to the largest loss of life in SEAL history.
If deals are made, the project would reteam the Canadian-born Kitsch with Berg, who directed him in this summer’s Universal tentpole Battleship.
Email: Borys.Kit@thr.com
Twitter: @Borys_Kit
