Lately, director Kathryn Bigelow has seemed dedicated to making movies that will make people feel certain ways about uncomfortable stuff. 2008’s The Hurt Locker—despite being about the Iraq War—wasn’t particularly controversial, but her follow-up, Zero Dark Thirty in 2012, certainly made a handful of waves. That film dealt with the United States military torturing enemy combatants, the frustration of endless government bureaucracy, and the killing of Osama Bin Laden. And it looks like Bigelow has no interest in easing up on the touchy subjects for her next project, which will revolve around racism, the death penalty, and 9/11. Feeling a certain way about uncomfortable stuff, yet?
As reported by HitFix, Bigelow is working on a big-screen adaptation of Anand Giridharadas’ The True American, which is, unfortunately, not about New Girl’s delightful drinking game of the same name. It’s actually the story of Mark Stroman, an American who went on a murder spree in the days after 9/11, targeting people he thought were from the Middle-East. One of his victims actually survived, and later went on to fight for Stroman to avoid the death penalty—thus tying it all together with yet another controversial topic people probably feel a certain way about. The movie version of the story is set to star Tom Hardy, and will reportedly pick up after Stroman has been arrested, so it can unpack the fallout of his violent actions and the connection he made with the man he tried to murder.
It all sounds very heavy, so let’s take a moment to remember that Kathryn Bigelow also directed Point Break. Wasn’t Patrick Swayze the best?