Screenwriter Matt Charman appears to be reactivating his cell of creative partners for last year’s Oscar-nominated Bridge Of Spies. The British playwright has sold a film pitch to Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Partners for a film about Walter Cronkite’s time spent in Vietnam for CBS News, according to The Hollywood Reporter. In addition to knocking out the script, Charman is also attached to produce, alongside Spielberg and Bridge Of Spies’ producer Marc Platt.
Cronkite’s momentous memorable and affecting February 1968 report on the war in Vietnam, shortly after the disastrous Tet Offensive a month earlier is credited by many as having turned public opinion concerning the military action. “To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, if unsatisfactory conclusion. On the off chance that military and political analysts are right, in the next few months we must test the enemy’s intentions, in case this is indeed his last big gasp before negotiations,” he said in the closing moments of his commentary. “But it is increasingly clear to this reporter that the only rational way out then will be to negotiate, not as victors, but as an honorable people who lived up to their pledge to defend democracy, and did the best they could.”
Whether Spielberg will direct is unclear at the moment, though it seems kind of unlikely since he’s only one person and he’s already got commitments for Ready Player One, The Kidnapping Of Edgardo Mortara, (all featuring Mark Rylance, who took home a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Bridge Of Spies), and yet another Indiana Jones sequel (which will probably feature Rylance), which appears to be moving forward despite all reason. It’s not known whether Rylance will be cast as Cronkite, but it sure seems like a safe bet.