Michael Bay in Talks to Direct Benghazi Movie ’13 Hours’ (Exclusive)

In a massive change of pace, Michael Bay is going from toy tentpole to a Benghazi political drama.

Bay is in negotiations to direct 13 Hours, the adaptation of Mitchell Zuckoff’s book about the attack on an American compound in Libya that left U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens dead.

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Chuck Hogan wrote the script adapting the book, which details how on Sept. 11, 2012, terrorists attacked the U.S. State Department Special Mission Compound in Benghazi. The focus is on six members of a security team that valiantly fought to defend the many Americans stationed there. They only partially succeeded: Stevens and a foreign service worker were killed in one attack, and two contract workers were killed during a second assault on a CIA station nearby. 

Erwin Stoff is producing the Paramount film. 

Bay has spent the better part of almost a decade in the land of Transformers movies, which have budgets of more $200 million, if not $250 million, each. He also took time to do a passion project, 2013’s Pain & Gain, which had a budget of around $26 million. Sources say that 13 Hours would be budgeted in the $30 to $40 million range.

Bay’s last Transformers film, Age of Extinction, grossed over a billion dollars worldwide. He is repped by WME.

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