HBO sets Reed story
Soldier film based on series of Post articles
By MICHAEL FLEMING
HBO Films has acquired rights to a series of Wa****ngton Post articles
about the neglect of wounded soldiers moved from Walter Reed Hospital
to outpatient facilities.
Ron Nyswaner has been set to write a telepic.
The Post's series won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for
re****ters Dana Priest and Anne Hull, along with photographer Michel du
Cille.
The series created outrage that reached Capitol Hill and prompted
Congressional hearings and reforms, after the investigative articles
revealed that there was no sup****t system for disoriented and gravely
injured vets who were left feeling angry and disrespected by
bureaucratic ineptitude that left them fending for themselves.
"The film will be about how four ordinary people, who put their lives
on the line for their country, came back injured and were then abused
and ignored by the crown jewel of the military," said 4-Screen Media's
Larry Lyttle, who'll exec produce with Helpern Co.'s David Helpern.
"The system ignored them until they took on the military at the
highest levels, and at Congressional hearings."
One of the protagonists will likely be Staff Sgt. John Daniel Shannon,
a 43-year-old sniper whose eye and skull were shattered by an enemy
bullet. Told there was no record he was a soldier, he had to produce
his Purple Heart in order to get a free uniform to replace the blood-
soaked one he arrived in. He and others set up a sup****t system to
help the neglected vets.
Nyswaner most recently scripted "The Painted Veil."
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117983967.html?categoryid=14&cs=1
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