The true story of an Iraqi translator who fought with US Navy Seals as part of the US-led invasion is heading to cinemas, based on a book co-written by American Sniper co-author Jim DeFelice and no doubt hoping to capitalise on the wave of American patriotism inspired by Clint Eastwood’s blockbuster drama.
Straight Outta Compton screenwriter Alan Wenkus will adapt the untitled film from the bestselling 2014 memoir Code Name: Johnny Walker, which tells how an Iraq-born man helped saved countless American military lives during a six-year stint accompanying US servicemen targeting terrorists. Its subject, who is known only by his code name, travelled with his family to the US following the Iraq war after Seals stepped in to rescue them from the threat of retaliation by militants.
The new film will move forward with the posthumous backing of American Sniper subject Chris Kyle himself. Kyle, reportedly the most lethal sniper in US military history with 160 confirmed kills out of 255 “probables” during four tours of duty in Iraq, once said of Felice’s book: “Johnny is responsible for saving American lives, especially Seals. He has an amazing story that I feel needs to be told and would touch the hearts of all Americans.” Kyle was shot dead at a Texas gun range in 2013. Marine corps veteran Eddie Ray Routh was convicted of his murder in February and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Wenkus, whose film about the pioneering rap group NWA has also proven a considerable box-office hit, described the proposed film as a “cinematic thriller that goes far beyond what the book was able to cover” and added: “It’s a side of the Iraq situation that’s never been told. Johnny started out as an Iraqi citizen who saw the beginnings of the rise of ISIS and worked with the Seals to save hundreds of American and Iraqi lives, and possibly change the course of the war.”
American Sniper was the highest-grossing film released in 2014 at the US box office with $350m (£227m), ahead of big-budget fantasy blockbusters such as The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part One, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: Winter Soldier and The Lego Movie. The Johnny Walker project will be touted to buyers at this week’s Toronto film festival, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Wenkus’s film is the latest patriotic venture being forged by studios in an effort to repeat the remarkable success of Eastwood’s film, which took $547m globally. American Sniper screenwriter Jason Hall is to make his directorial debut on Thank You for Your Service, a drama about post-traumatic stress disorder among Iraq war veterans, while Reese Witherspoon is set to star as one of the first female American soldiers to risk their lives on the battlefield, 1st Lieutenant Ashley White, in the military biopic Ashley’s War.
