Ever on the lookout for true-life tales of daring do, Disney has snapped up the rights to Casey Sherman and Michael J Tougias’ book The Finest Hours.
The tome, which hit shelves in 2009, chronicles an incredible rescue pulled off by the US Coast Guard in 1952 off the coast of Cape Cod. The teams scrambled when two oil tankers were ripped in half by massive waves during a deadly blizzard.
As part of four separate rescue efforts, men went out In old, wooden, motorized lifeboats, hugely ill-equipped to deal with the freezing winds and high seas, but undaunted by the task at hand – finding the 84 men who were clinging to the halves of the smashed tankers.
To bring the adaptation to life, the Mouse house and producer Jim Whitaker have hired Paul Tamsay and Eric Johnson, whose last attempt at a real-life story landed them with Oscar nominations for the script of The Fighter.
There’s no word on casting yet, but we’re betting Disney will be hoping to snare one or two big names to anchor an ensemble in the style of, say, The Perfect Storm…