They have only just wrapped a movie together, but already Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg are talking about working together again. The two giants of the silver screen, who finished filming the sci-fi thriller Minority Report recently, have expressed more than an interest in the World War II drama Ghost Soldiers, a true account of a rescue attempt by US Army Rangers on a Japanese prisoner of war camp.
Tom, the highest-paid actor in the world, is expected to take the role of Colonel Henry A Mucci, the mission leader who accused the US army of abandoning its soldiers who, with their backs to the sea were forced to surrender to the Japanese troops. It is not the first foray into Second World War history for Spielberg, however. The bearded film director is probably best-known for the gritty Saving Private Ryan and, more recently, the epic TV series Band Of Brothers, in which he collaborated with another Hollywood Tom – this time, Tom Hanks.
The Cruisester has already signed up the rights of the best-selling account of the rescue, Soldiers, written by Hampton Sides, and he and his producing partner Paul Wagner have wasted no time in commissioning a first draft.
Of the troops that survived the Bataan Death March, a 75-mile trek to Camp Cabanatuan, situated deep in the Philippines jungle, a further 2,500 did not survive the liberation, in which all 513 prisoners escaped after the Army Rangers killed all the camp guards during their rescue.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
