Adam Driver and Anne Hathaway are set to star in Alone at Dawn, a war drama that Ron Howard is directing for Amazon MGM.
The feature project falls under Amazon MGM’s recently renewed first-look film deal with Brian Grazer and Howard’s Imagine Entertainment, which is one of the production entities backing the film.
Alone at Dawn is based on the 2019 book of the same name and is inspired by the true story of Air Force Combat Controller John Chapman and the intelligence officer who, years later, fought to secure him a Medal of Honor. Driver will portray Chapman, while Hathaway will be the officer.
Chapman was part of a SEAL Team Six mission during the war in Afghanistan in which helicopters were downed. He saved his comrades while sustaining multiple wounds and was inadvertently left for dead. During the night, Chapman came to and not only engaged in more fighting, despite being mortally wounded, he then fought more attackers when another U.S. chopper flew into the area.
His actions saved numerous lives and years later, a movement began to award him a Medal of Honor. A different branch of the military tried to quash the request, as it would have been admitting that the soldier had been left behind. Eventually and triumphantly, his Air Force Cross was upgraded with the honor.
Thruline brought the manuscript of Alone at Dawn, by authors Dan Schilling and Lori Longfritz, the latter who is Chapman’s sister, to Hideaway. The latter, run by Jonathan Chapman and Matthew Rhodes, has some experience in war dramas having produced Cherry, which starred Tom Holland, and Mile 22, which starred Mark Wahlberg. Hideaway optioned the manuscript in a bidding war before it became a New York Times bestseller.
Hideaway initially hired Michael Russell Gunn, a writer-producer on such shows as Designated Survivor, to adapt the script. The banner brought the project to Imagine, which then set it up at MGM, and subsequently hired Erin Cressida Wilson (Secretary, The Girl on the Train) for rewrites. Amy Herzog (The Savant) also worked on the script.
Schilling, who, like Chapman, was also a combat control technician, is a military consultant on the project.
Joining Imagine to produce are Hideaway and Thruline, as well as Kristy Grisham, William Connor and Patrick Newall. Gunn will executive produce.
Hathaway is currently filming The Devil Wears Prada 2 and this year was also part of Christopher Nolan’s ensemble epic The Odyssey and shot Flowervale Street for director David Robert Michell. The latter two will hit theaters next year. The actress will next be seen in Mother Mary, directed by David Lowery and Verity, MGM’s adaptation of the bestselling Colleen Hoover book.
Driver, who appeared in Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, will next be seen in Jim Jarmusch’s upcoming Father Mother Sister Brother and James Gray’s Paper Tiger.
Hathaway is repped by Entertainment 360 and Sloane Offer. Driver is repped by WME and Offer.
Gunn is repped by WME, Artists First and Myman Greenspan, Wilson by CAA, Art/Work Entertainment, and Schreck Rose, and Herzog by WME and Johnson Shapiro.
