Stone, Willis in the Pink
Vietnam has always played a large part in Oliver Stone's life. So, it comes as no surprise that the Oscar-winning Platoon director is eyeing a return to that sacred ground.
According to the trades, Stone is in final negotiations with United Artists to finance Pinkville, a mystery drama he plans to direct about the infamous 1968 My Lai massacre that ended up being a key turning point in the Vietnam War.
Bruce Willis and Channing Tatum are set to star in the picture, which will have an estimated budget of $40 million and be distributed through MGM.
After reprising his role as wisecracking hero cop John McClane in this summer's hit action sequel, Live Free or Die Hard, Willis will take a more serious turn as Army General William R. Peers, the man who oversaw the investigation into the horrendous slaughter of 350 to 500 Vietnamese civilians by U.S. troops in the village of My Lai.
Most of the victims were defenseless women, children and elderly, and the incident and a subsequent cover-up by the military helped galvanize opposition to American intervention in southeast Asia.
Tatum, a 27-year-old newcomer best known for roles in Coach Carter, Step Up, and the soon-to-be-released Iraq War drama Stop Loss, will play Hugh Thompson, the courageous helicopter pilot who managed to halt the carnage by putting his craft down between the attackers and the few remaining villagers still alive. After subsequently reporting the incident to his superiors, Thompson was reprimanded for his actions.
The movie will chronicle his willingness to testify against his fellow soldiers at the trial, which helped Peers make public one of the most disgraceful and barbaric acts ever committed by America's Armed Forces.
After the success of last year's World Trade Center, Stone was originally hot for another war-themed project, a drama focusing on the CIA's hunt for Osama bin Laden in the mountains of Afghanistan after 9-11.
But the helmer opted to put that on the back burner in favor of Pinkville. The title derives from the code name the U.S. military gave the area where the My Lai village is located.
Michael Pena, who starred in WTC, is in talks to essay the role of Captain Ernest Medina, the tough-talking commander who ordered the massacre and was eventually charged for the crime and later acquitted.
Pinkville will be Stone's fourth foray into the jungles of Vietnam, having mined the conflict for riveting drama already in 1986's Best Picture winner, Platoon, 1989's Born on the Fourth of July, and 1993's Heaven and Earth.
The flick also presents the director another chance to work with Tom Cruise, who now runs UA with his producing partner, Paula Wagner. The actor nabbed an Oscar nod playing injured GI-turned-antiwar protester Ron Kovic in Born on the Fourth of July.
Pinkville was penned by Mikko Alanne, whose previous credits include the TV script Notorious, about the slayings of rival rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls, and the 1997 documentary Voice of Dissent, which questioned the role of the Los Angeles police in the 1968 murder of Senator Robert Kennedy, sparking calls for a new investigation in that case.
Up next for Willis, meanwhile, is Assassination of a High School President, a comedy set in a Catholic high school. It costars Mischa Barton, who also appeared with the actor in The Sixth Sense. Once shooting on that film wraps, he'll follow it with Morgan's Summit, a drama with Julianne Moore about a late-night radio host whose life takes a dark turn after a violent crime. He's also slated to team up with Morgan Freeman, Robert Duvall and Laurence Fishburne in The Last Full Measure, another Vietnam War-era drama about a heroic Air Force pararescue jumper who was awarded the Medal of Honor.
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