The story of the USS Indianapolis is one of those projects that keeps on surfacing in Hollywood. Best known as a chill-inducing story in Jaws, there have been several planned versions of the tragedy, including one for Warner Bros that almost starred Mel Gibson, and Universal’s planned JJ Abrams take.
But Warners is trying again – and the studio has engaged Chris Kentis, the director of Open Water, to try and make it work. Indianapolis will be based on Douglas Stanton’s book In Harm’s Way, which chronicles how the ship was sunk by a Japanese torpedo and only 317 of the 900 crewmen who went into the water got out alive, thanks to swarms of hungry sharks.
According to Kentis, Open Water was his way of proving that he could tackle the Indianapolis story. "Being a diver and a WWII buff, this is a story that long haunted me," Kentis told Variety. "Open Water was about two ordinary people who were oblivious to the dangers of nature until they were caught up in it. This is a story of heroism and selflessness, one that gives us the chance to consider that in a dire situation, you can't predict how people are going to react and who is going to emerge as that heroic figure."