Deepwater Horizon oil spill to become a film from director J.C. Chandor

Last Updated on August 5, 2021

J.C. Chandor may have found his fourth directorial effort in the form of a tragic true story. The Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind MARGIN CALL, ALL IS LOST, and the upcoming A MOST VIOLENT YEAR is in talks to helm the movie version of DEEPWATER HORIZON which follows the environmental disaster from a few years ago. The film will be coming from TRANSFORMERS producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura from a screenplay by Matthew Michael Carnahan.

The drama focuses on the April 20, 2010 explosion of the oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico that caused a massive offshore oil spill that created the second-largest U.S. environmental disaster.

The screenplay will apparently not be a political indictment of those responsible for the oil spill but rather a survival film about the 100 workers aboard the rig and how they made it to safety. With the huge amount of media attention when the rig tragedy first occurred, I am not sure how they would avoid addressing the environmental impact the accident had.

Chandor has directed wildly different films to date with MARGIN CALL being an Oscar-nominated film about the crash of the stock market and ALL IS LOST showcasing a near mute performance from Robert Redford. The upcoming A MOST VIOLENT YEAR may mark yet another nomination for Chandor at the Academy Awards if his track record holds up. I would be intrigued to see if this film can join the recent run of true story films like CAPTAIN PHILLIPS, THE IMPOSSIBLE, and ZERO DARK THIRTY.