Boston Strong, the movie about the manhunt for the 2013 Boston Marathon bombers, has been through some ups and downs during its time in development. First, son of Beantown Casey Affleck signed on to star in and produce the movie, but his deal fell through. 20th Century Fox, fearful that the bombing might be lost to the mists of time if it didn’t act quickly, soon attached Safe House director Daniel Espinosa to the project. Now Fox has drafted Joshua Zetumer, the writer of last year’s Robocop remake, to write it.
Eric Johnson and Paul Tamasy, the writers behind The Fighter, had actually already written a draft of the script before Affleck dropped out; Fox presumably brought in Zetumer, whose other credit is as the screenwriter on the upcoming X-Men spinoff starring Channing Tatum as Gambit, to give the story that glitzy ’80s remake feel only he could provide.
This announcement comes as the trial for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev—who faces the death penalty for allegedly carrying out the bombings with his brother Tamerlan—gets under way in Boston. With any luck, the movie will come out around the same time as Tsarnaev’s appeal, thus maximizing the potential for market penetration/national catharsis.