Bradley Cooper is setting up to produce and likely star in an adaptation of AMERICAN SNIPER, based on the autobiograpy of Chris Kyle, considered the most lethal sniper in American history. Jason Dean Hall is onboard to write the script, which follows the life of the famed sniper and his journey to reaching legendary status.
The book jumps between the POV of Kyle and that of his wife, Taya, as she recounts “the strains of war on their marriage and children, as well as on Chris.”
Here’s a short synopsis from the book:
From 1999 to 2009, U.S. Navy SEAL Chris Kyle recorded the most career sniper kills in United States military history. The Pentagon has officially confirmed more than 150 of Kyles kills (the previous American record was 109), but it has declined to verify the astonishing total number for this book. Iraqi insurgents feared Kyle so much they named him al-Shaitan (“the devil”) and placed a bounty on his head. Kyle earned legendary status among his fellow SEALs, Marines, and U.S. Army soldiers, whom he protected with deadly accuracy from rooftops and stealth positions. Gripping and unforgettable, Kyle’s masterful account of his extraordinary battlefield experiences ranks as one of the great war memoirs of all time.
Between this and Peter Berg’s adaptation of LONE SURVIVOR, I’m looking forward to seeing some accurate portrayals of these Navy SEALS’s lives. I’m less excited for the Kathryn Bigelow/Mark Boal flick ZERO DARK THIRTY aka Kill Bin Laden, which is based solely on the fact that they had so many gross inaccuracies in their last war film, THE HURT LOCKER. I’m hoping to see a realistic portrayal of men like Kyle, warts and all.
There’s no mention of a director for AMERICAN SNIPER, but I think it will be key once the project gets underway. I have confidence that Cooper can pull this role off as he’s demonstrated he could certainly “look” the part with THE A-TEAM. Cooper’s had a lot of stop-and-go projects of late and I think he needs to lock something down quickly before he becomes just “THE HANGOVER guy.”
More as this develops:
Oh, and here’s an interview with the real Chris Kyle as he details punching out Jessie Ventura: