Simon West has been coasting on a lot of goodwill since making his directing debut with Con Air. We've had to forgive Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and When A Stranger Calls and, frankly, we're all out of forgiveness. Maybe he can rescue his critical career with Thunder Run, a movie that certainly sounds good on paper and a lot more ambitious than anything he's attempted so far.
Thunder Run is based on David Zucchino's non-fiction book Thunder Run: The Armored Strike To Capture Baghdad. Zucchino will adapt the account of his time in the April 2003 battle in the Iraq War. Zucchino, who was at the time a reporter with the Los Angeles Times, was following the US Army's 101st Airborne Division, but was accidentally switched to the 2nd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division – in what, we're assuming, will not be a series of hilarious mix ups – and found himself entering Baghdad during a "thunder run". Basically, that involves a lot more gunfire than a reporter might like to be happening around his head.
Sure, this doesn't seem like the kind of material you'd immediately give to West and we can't say we're not worried that he might be a little in over his head. But, maybe he has unexplored directing depths? Besides, he owes us all.