Andrew Garfield, one of this year’s Best Actor nominees (Hacksaw Ridge), will star as war correspondent Carlos Mavroleon in Black Lion. Deadline first reported the news. The drama will capture the dangerous adventures of Mavroleon, a Harvard-educated heir-to-riches man who left Wall Street to become an intrepid world-renowned freelance reporter operating in the war-torn conflict zones of Afghanistan and Pakistan. He was one of the first to discover the link between Pakistan and Al-Qaeda/Taliban.
He had an untimely death in August 1998 on his last assignment for 60 Minutes to Peshawar. In phone messages to a 60 Minutes producer two days before his death, Mavroleon had said he was “in terrible trouble” and that “they’re on to me in a big way.” He was found dead in a Peshawar hotel room by an apparent heroin drug overdose which those closest to him insisted was a cover-up for his murder. The film will also capture his other derring-do activities such as commanding a unit of Afghan Mujahideen against the Russians, and serving as a bodyguard for a Pakistani tribal chief.
Alessandro Camon (The Messenger) will write the screenplay. Stay Gold Features has acquired the title and is backing development. Producers are Garfield, Rupert Fowler alongside Taplin Lundberg who formed Stay Gold in 2016. Executive producers are Camon and Aidan Hartley.
Garfield recently co-starred opposite Adam Driver (Paterson) in Martin Scorcese’s well-reviewed Silence. He has just wrapped up shooting crime-thriller Under the Silver Lake, also backed by Stay Gold Features.
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