Somali Pirates Film

According to a very excited Kevin Spacey over on his Twitter page and The Hollywood Reporter, a movie on the Somali Pirate story from a few months ago is in the works.

Columbia Pictures has picked up the life story rights of Richard Phillips, the captain of the ship captured by Somalis and later rescued by the U.S. Navy, with the aim to develop a feature film to be produced by Scott Rudin, Michael DeLuca, Kevin Spacey and Dana Brunetti.

No writer is on board, but the film will retell the story of the captain of the trading vessel Maersk Alabama who, in order to save his crew, surrendered himself to Somali pirates after his ship was hijacked.

The standoff, which commanded worldwide attention, tested the strength of Phillips and his crew as well as the resolve of the Navy commanders and President Barack Obama to bring Captain Phillips home alive.

Columbia president Doug Belgrad and Elizabeth Cantillon will oversee the project for the studio

We’ll see what comes of it with  the right  script, cast,  and director. Spacey, DeLuca and Brunetti had previous luck with another fact-based film, 2008’s  ’21.’