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UNBROKEN: Joel, Ethan Coen Rewriting Angelina Jolie’s World War 2 Film

Joel Coen Ethan Coen Angelina Jolie

Coen Brothers Rewriting Unbroken. Angelina Jolie contracting Joel Coen and Ethan Coen to rewrite the the current William Nicholson and Richard LaGravanese script for Unbroken answers the question of who will take over the writing duties for the World War 2 film. The Universal Pictures film will be about Louis Zamperini, an “Olympic track star turned World War II Air Force officer”. The project was kicked started with the publication of “Laura Hillenbrand‘s biography Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, which Universal purchased the film rights to.

On Louis Zamperini:

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In 1934 Zamperini set a world interscholastic record for the mile, clocking in at 00:04:21.2 at the preliminary meet to the state championships.The following week he won the championships with a 04:27.8. That record helped him win a scholarship to the University of Southern California and eventually a place on the 1936 U.S. Olympic team in the 5000 metres, at 19 the youngest U.S. qualifier ever in that event.

While attending USC, Zamperini was a member of The Kappa Sigma Fraternity and lived in the fraternity house along with his brother.

In the Olympic trials at Randall’s Island, Zamperini finished in a dead tie in a heat against world-record holder Don Lash and qualified for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany, though neither he nor Lash had much chance of winning the 5000 meter race. Zamperini has related several amusing anecdotes from his Olympic experience, including gorging himself on the boat trip to Europe. “I was a Depression-era kid who had never even been to a drugstore for a sandwich,” he said. “And all the food was free. I had not just one sweet roll, but about seven every morning, with bacon and eggs. My eyes were like saucers.” By the end of the trip, Zamperini, in common with most athletes on the ship, had gained a good deal of weight – in Zamperini’s case, 12 pounds. While the weight gain was not advantageous for his running it was necessary for his health, as he had lost 15 pounds while training in the summer heat in New York for the Olympic Trials.

Zamperini finished eighth in the 5000 meter distance event at that Olympics, but his final lap of 56 seconds was fast enough to catch the attention of Adolf Hitler, who insisted on a personal meeting. As Zamperini tells the story, Hitler shook his hand, and said simply “Ah, you’re the boy with the fast finish.” According to a profile on Bill Stern’s Sports Newsreel radio program, Zamperini climbed a flag pole during the 1936 Olympic games and stole the personal flag of Hitler.

Two years later, in 1938, Zamperini set a national collegiate mile record which held for fifteen years, earning him the nickname “Torrance Tornado”.

Zamperini enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces in September 1941, and earned a commission as a second lieutenant. He was deployed to the Pacific island of Funafuti as a bombardier on a B-24 Liberator bomber. In April 1942, the plane was badly damaged in combat, and the crew were assigned to conduct a search for a lost aircraft and crew. They were given another B-24, The Green Hornet, notorious among the pilots as a defective “lemon plane’. While on the search, mechanical difficulties caused the plane to crash into the ocean 850 miles west of Oahu, killing eight of the eleven men aboard.

The three survivors (Zamperini and his crewmates, pilot Russel Allen “Phil” Phillips and Francis “Mac” McNamara), with little food and no water, subsisted on captured rainwater and small fish eaten raw. They caught an albatross and used some of its meat to catch fish, all while fending off constant shark attacks and nearly being capsized by a storm. They were strafed multiple times by a Japanese bomber, puncturing their life raft, but no one was hit. McNamara died after thirty-three days at sea.

On their 47th day adrift, Zamperini and Phillips reached land in the Marshall Islands[13] and were immediately captured by the Japanese Navy. They were held in captivity and severely beaten and mistreated until the end of the war in August, 1945. Zamperini was held in the Japanese Prisoner-of-war camp at ?funa for captives who were not registered as prisoners of war (POW). He was especially tormented by sadistic prison guard Mutsuhiro Watanabe (nicknamed “The Bird”), who was later included in General Douglas MacArthur’s list of the 40 most wanted war criminals in Japan. Held at the same camp, was then-Major Greg “Pappy” Boyington, and in his book, Baa Baa Black Sheep, he discusses Zamperini and the Italian recipes he would write to keep the prisoners’ minds off the food and conditions.

Zamperini had at first been declared missing at sea, and then, a year and a day after his disappearance, killed in action. When he eventually returned home he received a hero’s welcome.

Unbroken may possibly start production in 2013.

Leave your thoughts on Joel Coen and Ethan Coen writing Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken below in the comments section. For more Unbroken photos, videos, and information, visit our Unbroken Page, subscribe to us by Email, follow us on Twitter or on FacebookUnbroken may start production some time in 2013.

Source: Slashfilm, Wikipedia, Thehollywoodreporter

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Rollo Tomasi

Rollo Tomasi is a Connecticut-based film critic, TV show critic, news, and editorial writer. He will have a MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 2025. Rollo has written over 700 film, TV show, short film, Blu-ray, and 4K-Ultra reviews. His reviews are published in IMDb's External Reviews and in Google News. Previously you could find his work at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and AltFilmGuide. Now you can find his work at FilmBook.
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