Snapped Up

In a very canny move indeed, Disney has snapped up the rights to a project that fairly screams Oscar, the feature film version of the life of war photographer Robert Capa. Never heard of the bloke? Well, this would be the happy snapper that helped to revolutionise photojournalism by creating some of the most shocking images of conflict around the globe from the late 1930s to 1954, when he was killed in action by stepping on a landmine in Vietnam. Not enough for you? Well, try this. Without Capa, there'd be no Saving Private Ryan. One of Spielberg's biggest self-professed influences on his guts an' all D-Day epic was Capa's legendary footage of the U.S. troops' assault on Omaha Beach, shot by the soldiers' sides as he stumbled ashore under heavy fire. The silver screen treatment of the man's brave life behind the camera is expected to focus on Capa's love affair with an Englishwoman against the backdrop of World War II, while also telling of his experience as an enemy alien – he was Hungarian-born – in war-time America. Top male actors of Hollywood, please form an orderly queue. The fight to play Robert Capa starts here.