J.J. ships with THE GOOD SAILOR

By: Patrick Sauriol
Date: Wednesday, January 12, 2005
Source: The Hollywood Reporter

ALIAS and LOST creator J.J. Abrams is now attached to direct a new movie project called THE GOOD SAILOR, in development at Universal Pictures. The film's screenplay is being written by Brent Hanley and it's based on a pair of real world events separated by more than half a century of time.

On July 30, 1945 the heavy cruiser USS Indianapolis was sunk by a Japanese submarine while returning from a top secret mission delivering the atomic bomb that would eventually help bring an end to the Second World War. According to the reports from survivors, over 900 of the ship's crew survived the sinking and were plunged into the shark-infested waters of the Pacific Ocean. As it was on a classified mission, the ship was not reported missing; it wasn't until five days after the sinking of the Indianapolis that the survivors were spotted by accident.

By the time rescue vessels arrived, two-thirds of the Indianapolis survivors had died as the result of shark attacks. The ship's captain, Charles McVay III, was later court martialed for losing his ship.

Five decades afterward, a school project by a 12-year-old boy on the sinking of the Indianapolis brought an unexpected wave of publicity towards the incident. As a result of the newfound public interest, Captain McVay was exonerated of the court martial charges in 2001. Hanley's screenplay will use this angle as a means to tell the story of the Indianapolis' sinking, as a survivor of the incident recalls the events.


Abrams won't be able to move on to THE GOOD SOLDIER until after completing his next mission that he's accepted, the job to helm MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3.


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