Doug Liman has had a varied career of late behind the camera, The Bourne Identity was a great piece of directing while Mr. & Mrs. Smith took the gunplay gymnastics to crazy heights while adding a dash of screwball to the mix and though I find it difficult to forgive anyone involved in Jumper, the next project for Liman looks intriguing.
A seminal moment in 1970s America society occured in 71 when a bloody riot erupted in Attica state prison resulting in a four day standoff and a grisly denouement with the deaths of 42 people, most occuring in the final assault by the state police. Liman’s father was chief counsel to the New York State Special Commission on Attica which will no doubt add another dimension to the film, Variety have him quoted,
My father’s report literally reads like a page turner…It is filled with stories of guards and prisoners from vastly different backgrounds learning to trust each other in the face of real human tragedy.
While THR found this post on Liman’s blog, when he visited the instituiton,
The tour was astounding…We followed the steps the prisoners took as they overwhelmed the guards; saw the radiators they ripped off the walls and the gates they smashed open with them. We left with so many stories, and names and contacts of people who were there to continue our research.
It seems as though Liman will eschew his familiar balls-out bullet ballet and seek to find the human forces which effected and which were affected by this tragedy. The Oscar nominated Precious screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher is writing the script.
