The Founding Fathers are suddenly a hot commodity. On the heels of Lin-Manual Miranda’s mega-hit Broadway hip-hop musical, Hamilton, about the role of the founding fathers in the American Revolution, New Line has just acquired The Virginian, centering on George Washington before he became the first president of the United States.
Written by Michael Gunn (who worked under Aaron Sorkin on HBO’s The Newsroom), The Virginian is an action thriller showing a young Washington accepting a dangerous mission to conquer a French fort and save the American colonies. Donald De Line (Body of Lies, Ready Player One) will produce. There is no star yet attached to the vehicle although the script has been getting a lot of buzz among agents. The film was shopped around as sharing a similar tone to Braveheart and The Last of the Mohicans – both Oscar-winning pictures.
A young and raw George Washington is also the subject of the Bill Collage and Adam Cooper (co-writers of Exodus: Gods and Kings and Accepted) script being developed by the 5 year-old Red Granite Pictures, which backed The Wolf of Wall Street. Titled The General, the studio is rumored to be courting Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese for the project.
It looks like we will be looking to American history for a new source of action heroes.
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