It was only because Gordon piqued my interest in the comments section for the New Moon trailer story that I even paused for a brief second while scanning Variety‘s headlines, and now I’m glad I did.
For it was because I paused that I got to read about the latest project from British director Duncan Jones, a World War II-era thriller called Escape from the Deep, based on the book by historian Alex Kershaw.
Deep will be based on the true story of a U.S. Navy submarine called the U.S.S. Tang which was accidentally hit by one of its own torpedoes after a successful run which sank several ships in October 1944. According to the Tang’s Wikipedia entry, after sinking to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean the crewmen had to sit tight while the Japanese Navy fired depth charges at them and then swim 180 feet to the surface in order to get out of the burning tub.
Eventually, only nine seamen made it to the surface alive, only to be captured by the Japanese and spend the rest of the war as POWs. I also have to admit that the detail from the story that gets to me the most (which probably won’t be filmed) is this one:
When the nine survivors were picked up by a destroyer escort, there were victims of Tang’s previous sinkings on board, and they tortured the men from Tang. [Commander] O’Kane stated, “When we realized that our clubbing and kickings were being administered by the burned, mutilated survivors of our handiwork, we found we could take it with less prejudice.”
Kershaw will be adapting his own book for the movie, and production is set for sometime next year.
Gordon says:
Shit, that’s heavy. Nice.