Director William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist, To Live and Die in L.A.) has attached himself to a new project to helm with The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. He’s also cast Keifer Sutherland in the lead role.
Sutherland will star as Lt. Commander Queeg in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial, which centers on a naval officer who “stands trial for mutiny for taking command from a ship captain he feels is acting in unstable fashion, endangering both the ship and its crew.”
The movie will go into production with a 50-year-old play script written by Herman Wouk from his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name. Fredkin said in a statement: “I’ve looked at a lot of scripts in the last 10 years, and I haven’t seen anything I really wanted to do. But I think about it a lot, and it occurred to me that could be a very timely and important piece, as well as being great drama. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is one of the best court-martial dramas ever written.”
Friedkin went on to share what he’s changed with that script, saying: “The original piece was written for WWII, and Wouk included all the pent-up anger in this country over Pearl Harbor. I’ve updated it so that is no longer Pearl Harbor. I’ve made it contemporary, involving the Gulf of Hormuz and the Straits of Hormuz, leading to Iran.”
The filmmaker added: “There never was a mutiny in the United States Navy. Herman Wouk virtually created the first and only mutiny in the United States military. His dialogue is terrific, right to the point. It’s set at a trial, but it’s all really by the book, in terms of accuracy. But there never was a mutiny in the United States military. He invented it and all that would take place around it, based on the laws that cover it.”
When talking about cast Sutherland in the project, he said: “I think he is one of the best actors in America, one of the very best. I saw every episode of his show 24. I thought he was just great but that he could do a lot more, and this gives him an opportunity to stretch.”
This isn’t the first time this story has been adapted into a film. There was a 1954 movie that starred Humphrey Bogart as Queeg. Then, in 1988 there was a telepic made that was directed by Robert Altman.
Source: Deadline