David Ayer to helm WWII tank battle thriller El-Alamein for Lionsgate

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

With his crime thriller THE TAX COLLECTOR starring Shia LaBeouf in post-production and plans for BRIGHT 2 still in the works, it's been announced that filmmaker David Ayer is negotiating to direct EL-ALAMEIN, a film centered around a series of brutal battles in the desert that found German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel squaring off against Britain's Eighth Army in North Africa, as led by Bernard Montgomery.

The project was originally based off a script penned by David Self, with the most recent draft having been written by James Coyne. Plans are for the film to begin production in early 2020, with Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian of Di Bonaventura Pictures and Thomas Augsberger producing.

Fans of Ayer's work will know that this isn't the first time that the SUICIDE SQUAD helmer has offered to shoot a war epic. In 2014, Ayer had directed FURY, another tank battle film set in WWII which starred Brad Pitt as grizzled tank commander Don "Wardaddy" Collier. For FURY, Pitt's Collier was forced to make tough decisions as he and his team fought their way across Germany in April, 1945.

Deadline, who exclusively reported the news about Ayer negotiating for the project have summarized the events to be depicted in EL-ALAMEIN, which you can read for yourself below:

After British forces defeated Italian forces in North Africa, Germany tapped Gen. Rommel to drive eastward along the North African coast to seize the Suez Canal. British forces were routed, and it came down to a stand at El-Alamein. There, British forces kept the Germans bottled up and unable to overrun Egypt. After several long, bloody battles, and with assistance from Australian and New Zealand forces, the Allies won the day. Rommel signaled Hitler that the cause was lost. He was not granted permission to retreat but began withdrawing troops, leaving the Italians alone to be trounced by allied forces.