John Moore launched his film directing career with Behind Enemy Lines in 2001, and he’s looking to head back into a combat zone for a new potential project, albeit a true story. Moore is attached to work on World War II biopic **Come Hell Or High Water.
William Wisher has written this one, based on the experiences of Captain Ernest Evans, who was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 144.
Evans’ part of the conflict – fought off the coast of Philippine island Samar – saw his task force taken by surprise after a larger fleet was lured away by Japanese decoy vessels. In a seemingly impossible situation, outnumbered and outgunned by enemy forces, the task force took one third of the main battle’s casualties, but still managed to hold off the Japanese. Evans, who was commanding destroyer the USS Johnson, was a crucial part of the fight, and went down with his ship.
It’ll have to sail through development before it reaches the screen, but it marks the latest collaboration between director and writer as Wisher also worked on the thriller I.T., which Moore is now editing. That film, which finds Pierce Brosnan as a businessman who must stop a slighted tech guy from stalking his family, should be on our screens in 2016.