Steven Spielberg and Clint Eastwood, two directors well known enough that attaching their name to a product normally ensures good business and/or critical kudos. Team them together though, you got yourself a hell of a mix.
<a href="http://au.news.yahoo.com/040709/11/ptvd.html" target="_blank">The Hollywood Reporter</a> indicates that Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg are teaming up to bring the story of the Battle of Iwo Jima to the big screen. Eastwood will direct an adaptation of "Flags of Our Fathers: Heroes of Iwo Jima" for DreamWorks, the studio co-founded by Spielberg. The battle, which took place in winter 1945, was a turning point in the Pacific theater. In one month, 22,000 Japanese and 26,000 Americans died, and the battle produced one of World War II's most enduring images: a photograph of six soldiers raising an American flag on the flank of Mount Suribachi, the island's commanding high point.
One of the six was Navy corpsman John Bradley. Bradley never mentioned his experiences to his family, and it was only after his death in 1994 that his son James discovered his father's heroism. James Bradley wrote the "Flags of Our Fathers" book, which was published in 2000, with Ron Powers. The project is the second collaboration between Spielberg and Eastwood, following 1995's "The Bridges of Madison County," which Eastwood directed and starred in and Spielberg produced through his own Amblin Entertainment banner. The script for "Flags of Our Fathers" will be written by Paul Haggis, who is co-writing with Eastwood "The Million Dollar Baby," which Eastwood is also directing; Hilary Swank stars. Thanks to 'B. Payne' & 'KarlChilders'
