Robert Downey Jr to make WWII shark attack film

[DevonDiver]

Robert Downey Jr to make WWII shark attack film | Film & TV News | NME.COM

Robert Downey Jr and his partner Susan Downey have teamed up with Warner Bros to tell the story of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis. The story of the boat's demise, and the sailors' subsequent wait for rescue in shark-infested waters, was most famously told inJaws by Robert Shaw's shark hunter Quint.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the new take on the tale sees the focus rest on an 11-year-old boy, Hunter Scott, who while researching for a history competition, discovered that the captain of the Indianapolis had been wrongly court-martialed.

Warner Bros and Downey Jr's company, Team Downey, have bought the life rights to Hunter Scott.

Robert Schenkken, writer of the HBO drama The Pacific, has been hired to tackle the script. He was nominated for an Emmy for his work on the televised WWII drama.

Last month, it was announced that the writers of American Psycho and Taxi Driver, Bret Easton Ellis and Paul Schrader, were to team up for a shark attack movie called 'Bait'.

 

[Tortuga68]

If this is the same incident I'm recalling, there was a pretty good doco done on it where the survivors recounted that the only sailors eaten by sharks were those that were already dead, rendering the "shark attack" reference a bit dubious at best. Hope it doesn't turn out to be a "shark week" style paranoia-induced tale

 

[DevonDiver]

It's the incident mentioned by Quint in 'Jaws'

Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into our side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte... just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half an hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that when you're in the water, Chief? You tell by looking from the dorsal to the tail fin. What we didn't know, was our bomb mission had been so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin', so we formed ourselves into tight groups. You know, it was kinda like old squares in the battle like you see in the calendar named "The Battle of Waterloo" and the idea was: shark comes to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin' and hollerin' and screamin' and sometimes the shark will go away... but sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark he looks right into ya. Right into your eyes. And, you know, the thing about a shark... he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living... until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all the poundin' and the hollerin', they all come in and they... rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks, maybe a thousand. I know how many men, they averaged six an hour. On Thursday morning, Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boatswain's mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water just like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist. Noon, the fifth day, Mr. Hooper, a Lockheed Ventura saw us. He swung in low and he saw us... he was a young pilot, a lot younger than Mr. Hooper. Anyway, he saw us and he come in low and three hours later a big fat PBY comes down and starts to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened... waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went in the water; 316 men come out and the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb.

 

[Tortuga68]

That's the one... here's a different perspective:

"While injuries, dehydration and exposure cost the lives of most of the crew that escaped the sunken ship, others were victims of shark attacks. In the end, about two dozen deaths were attributed to shark attacks"

U.S.S. Indianapolis vs Shark Attacks

I think this is the doco I saw: Ocean of Fear - Worst Shark Attack Ever part 8/8 - YouTube

It's a harrowing story either way, I just hope they don't overplay the shark attack aspect

 

[DevonDiver]

I'm hopeful. 'The Pacific' was well written - with an emphasis on realism. I always thought it was based on Ambrose's series of work though - so perhaps the article (above) misleadingly refers to the writer of the screenplay, rather than the original books. If so, I wonder which (if any) book/reference material the new film will be based upon. That'll make a big difference to the quality.

 

[covediver]

Be interesting to see if he will make it to production. he is about due for a major relapse followed by major announcement that he is entering rehab after making the circuit of all the talk shows. hopefully the story of the real heroes wont be lost in his drug sopped delusions.

 

[vladimir]

In Harm's Way is a well-written, balanced account of the incident.

Warner Bros and Downey Jr's company, Team Downey, have bought the life rights to Hunter Scott.

Life rights? If the kid wants to get married, say, does he have to check with Team Downey first?

 

[Bev Stayart]

I hope Robert Downey Jr., Susan Downey and Warner Bros. do an extremely thorough job of researching this incident before they sensationalize any aspects of the actual incident to appeal to the widest possible audience. To me, a documentary format, as opposed to a fictional account, is the most credible approach.

 

[Tom Winters]

When my destroyer was steaming around in the Pacific in the early '80's on independent duty and I was the Officer-of-the-Deck, I noticed on the Navy nav chart that we were going right by the site of the Indianapolis sinking on the way to the Phillipines. I bounced the idea off the captain and he said to go ahead and render honors. Different time, it could have been us.

 

[Culcuhain]

There was a movie already about this that starred Stacey Keach as the captain. Pretty good movie.