Yep, Michael Bay left behind his beloved CGI and “Transformers” series for a geopolitical drama. Titled “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi,” the film is based on Mitchell Zuckoff’s book about the 2012 attack on an American compound in Libya where six members of a security team fought to defend the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi. The assault in the wake of 9/11 left U.S. ambassador J. Christopher Stevens dead.
Bay has left “Transformers” before and returned to the series. He shot the muscle-head crime drama “Pain And Gain” in between “Transformers” movies and it wasn’t really much of a thing for him — at least he shot it and turned it around fast, no doubt because there was hardly any major VFX. Bay did the same thing with ’13 Hours’: it started shooting in April this year and it’s already due at the top of 2016.
READ MORE: Retrospective: The Films Of Michael Bay
The film stars James Badge Dale, John Krasinski, Toby Stephens, Pablo Schreiber, Max Martini, David Denman, Dominic Fumusa, and Freddie Stroma, and is apparently not just about the attack itself, but how the security team struggles to make sense out of the chaos. Adapted by Chuck Hogan (“The Strain,” author of “The Town”), one has to wonder if Bay has the finesses for this kind of action drama. The action, sure, but what about the rest of it? We’ll find out soon enough. ’13 Hours’ is only six months away and lands in theaters January 15, 2016, by Paramount Pictures. Watch the first trailer below and a red-band version, too.
I\’m a little surprised they\’re sticking with the long title instead of just 13 HOURS, but Jared is right, the American Sniper slot is good strategy.
I think what they meant was that it was on September 11, 2012. The strike on Benghazi, like the violent protests at the US embassy in Cairo and in other countries, were specifically held on 9/11 in order to gain themselves maximum attention and presumably remind America of our greatest recent tragedy. There isn\’t a direct connection between the terrorists who brought down the twin towers and the ones who attacked Benghazi, but I think it\’s safe to say the latter have been inspired by the destructive power of the former, and they were intentionally drawing a comparison between them.
According to the americans, the only terrorist attack in the world worth talking about is the 9/11. Rest doesn\’t matter.
"The assault in the wake of 9/11" It happened in 2012… 11 years later… Will 9/11 forever be the last major event to occur in world history? You might\’ve more accurately said: "In the wake of the US/NATO invasion of Libya…" etc.
There\’s something oddly gratifying about seeing Jim Halpert and Roy Anderson together as spec ops soldiers. Yet, it\’s strange John had no dialogue in this trailer.
Smart marketing going for that red state audience with the American Sniper release date.