Oil spill movie in pipeline

THE New York Times’ dramatic 8,500-word story about the April 20, 2010, oil rig explosion off Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, which killed 11 people and led to the worst spill in US history, is being made into a movie.

Summit Entertainment, Participant Media and Imagenation Abu Dhabi said they have acquired the film rights to the article, Deepwater Horizon’s Final Hour, published on December 25 and written by David Barstow, David Rohde and Stephanie Saul.

Matthew Sand will write the screenplay. Talks are ongoing to have Transformers producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura produce the project under his Di Bonaventura Pictures banner.

Summit, the studio behind the Twilight franchise, said the film will portray the heroism of Deepwater’s crew and evoke the raw emotion depicted in the newspaper piece.