Paul Greengrass seems to be a busy man these days. He’s already working on two new projects, including one for Apple TV, titled “Lost Bus.” We can now add a third one.
Greengrass will team up with Warner Bros to adapt, direct and produce “Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421,” based on T.J. Newman’s bestselling novel. According to Deadline, Warners won a heated bidding war and final landed the rights to the book. Here’s the synopsis:
In Drowning, a plane crashes in the Pacific Ocean six minutes after takeoff and is flooded after an explosion during evacuation. A dozen survivors sink in a sealed part of the aircraft as it perches precariously on an undersea cliff 200 feet below the surface. Among them is an engineer and his 11-year-old daughter. His estranged wife — she’s also the girl’s mother — is part of the elite rescue team that races to save the passengers before their air runs out.
No word yet on which of the three projects Greengrass is currently working on will be the first to shoot.
Greengrass’ last film was 2020’s “News of the World,” which received good reviews, but nowhere near the accolades Greengrass was used to getting. It actually didn’t look and feel like a Greengrass movie.
In the aughts, the filmmaker made the use of handheld camera “hip” in Hollywood with his 'Bourne' movies and, by all accounts, he should most definitely be put on any list of the most influential action filmmakers of the 21st century.
His films made you feel like you are really there, in the thick of the action. His very best work — "Captain Phillips," "United 93," "Bloody Sunday”—are these heroic stories of unimaginable horror mixed with edge of your seat thrills. He reinforced the importance of using the handheld camera as a way to bring realism in big studio film.
Is his style of filmmaking now dated? I guess. There have been numerous copycats ever since his incendiary 2002 debut, “Bloody Sunday,” but a new project from him is always worth keeping an eye out for.