Merrick here...


Fox 2000 has secured the rights to Michael Dobb's book ONE MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT: KENNEDY, KHRUSHCHEV AND CASTRO ON THE BRINK OF NUCLEAR WAR. for producer John Davis (I, ROBOT, THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX remake, AvP).
You can find the book HERE.

This one's about The Cuban Missile Crisis. One of my college professors worked in the government...in D.C...during that time (October 1962). He shared vivd remembrances about going to bed at night, unsure if he...or the world...would ever see another sunrise. He talked about how carrying such weight irrevocably changes the way a person sees the life, people and the world around them. If the film can capture that kind of atmosphere and those kind of emotions...this could be something pretty damn potent.

At the height of those tensions, a U-2 pilot took off from Alaska, lost his bearings and ventured inside the Soviet Union, just as each side was looking for provocation to start a nuclear war.

"Buried in that book is this white-knuckle four-hour flight that frames out the most dangerous moment in the history of the world," Davis said. "As Fidel Castro was trying to convince Khrushchev to let these missiles fly, this pilot is (initially) unaware he's flown off course. The Soviets think they're being attacked and get their bombers up to 50,000 feet. The plane (is about to run) out of gas, and this pilot has to get out of the Soviet Union before his plane drops down to where those Soviet planes are waiting for him."

...says THIS ARTICLE in Variety.

The Cuban Missile Crisis was visited a few years back by Roger Donaldson's THIRTEEN DAYS, which chronicled the goings on in & around the Kennedy White House during the events. The film starred the way under-appreciated Bruce Greenwood as JFK, who'll be seen next year as Christopher Pike (the Enterprise commander who proceeding Jim Kirk) in J.J. Abrams' STAR TREK.