A24’s potential WWII thriller, Airman, would boast Ben Stiller as a producer, through his company Red Hour Films, and star Jeremy Allen White as Arthur Meyorowitz, a downed American turret-gunner hiding from the Gestapo.
Other potential producers include Jake Gyllenhaal, through his company Nine Stories, John Lesher under his Les Grisbi Productions, and P.J. van Sandwijk under Storyteller Productions.
Ben Shattuck’s screenplay is adapted from The Lost Airman: A True Story of Escape from Nazi-Occupied France. The 2016 non-fiction book details Meyorowitz’s enlistment, battle experience, near-fatal mission flying over France in 1943, and lucky encounter with French resistance legend Marcel Taillandier. Taillandier, who would later be killed by the Gestapo, helps Meyorowitz avoid detection and eventually reach neutral Spain.
The survival thriller would be a change of pace for both White and Stiller. It would introduce White to the war genre, further developing his reputation in leading roles after Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere. The project would see Stiller return to the film world after producing and directing work for Severance and directing Escape at Dannemora.
WME is representing both Stiller and White. UTA and Management 360 are representing Shattuck.
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