‘SNL’s Taran Killam Joins ‘Twelve Years A … 
Kevin Hart In Talks To Join Kevin James In ‘Valet … 
Anthony Hopkins Up For ‘Red 2′ Villain; Can … 
Cannes Conflicted Over ‘The Paperboy’ As … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘American Idol’ Posts … 
Ghost Of 2004 Hovers Over L.A. Screenings As Int’l … 
On The Road To Awards Season? Kerouac Book Finally Makes It … 
Michael Bay’s Name Pushed Paramount To Settle Injured … 
Several More New Series In Recasting Mode; Returning Ones … 
‘G.I. Joe: Retaliation’ Moving To March 2013 To … 
Directors Fortnight Says It Must “Police … 
‘Chronicle’ Helmer Josh Trank Takes On … 
Big Media Chiefs Tell Cable Operators To Speed Up ‘TV … 
Will ‘Pan Am’ Take Flight With Amazon? 
EMMYS: Showtime Launches Free Weekend Promotion Targeting … 
TOLDJA! ICM Management Buyout Complete 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Dancing With The Stars’, … 
An Olympian Effort: NBCUni Plans 5,535 Hours Of Coverage … 
Netflix Exec Denies It’s Responsible For Nickelodeon … 
DESPERATE: HuffPo & Oprah Team Up Now 
Hot Trailer: ‘The Great Gatsby’ 
Even Jerry Bruckheimer isn’t immune to the Disney turnaround blitzkrieg. While he’s off in Hawaii shooting Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Bruckheimer just had a high-profile WWII project killed by Rich Ross because it didn’t fit the studio’s family-friendly franchise mandate. Though Bruckheimer put two years of work into it, Disney has jettisoned an adaptation of the Steven Pressfield historical novel Killing Rommel. Several drafts were written by Randall Wallace and Pressfield, best known for writing Gates of Fire and The Legend of Bagger Vance. Wallace, of course, wrote the WWII film Pearl Harbor for Disney and Bruckheimer and he also scripted the period war films Braveheart and We Were Soldiers. Wallace also directed the upcoming Disney film Secretariat, which the studio releases on October 8. Killing Rommel is the daring attempt by a British battalion to capture German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, at a time when his Panzer tanks were overrunning the North African desert and driving Winston Churchill crazy. The film’s tone is Mad Max meets The Dirty Dozen, as the the British Long Range Desert Group tricked out their formerly sluggish armored vehicles to outmaneuver the deadly German tanks. There is also a little bit of a Valkyrie epilogue: Rommel wasn’t killed by the Brits, but rather took poison after being accused of complicity in a July 1944 attempt to assassinate Hitler. Disney’s Ross hasn’t been shy about dropping projects that don’t fit the studio mold–casualties include 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and the Wild Hogs sequel–but this is the first one I’ve heard of for Bruckheimer. The question is whether Bruckheimer takes it elsewhere, since he rarely makes films outside the Magic Kingdom. He did make an exception when he moved the Ridley Scott-directed Black Hawk Down to Revolution Studios.
The Brits Couldn’t Kill ‘Rommel’ But Disney Finds A Way
-
Marketplace
-
-
News/Opinion Poll
Loading ...Box Office Poll
Loading ...
I guess Disney didn’t think Rommel dolls would make good Happy Meal prizes. Which is a shame, because despite 60 years of movies, there are still literally hundreds of WW2 stories that could make good movies. I’m surprised he hasn’t gone for St. Nazaire, which had spies, commandos, a huge gun battle behind enemy lines, and ends with a massive explosion, it’s perfect for him.
Anyway, maybe Bruckheimer should consider being open to a relationship with another studio. It’s only a matter of time before his brand of over the top action-adventure is completely squeezed out in favor of Disney going completely back to kid flicks.
Excellent decision, Disney means family-friendly, that’s why Iger put Rich Ross, from Disney Channel, in charge in the first place.
Surprised this was ever under consideration there. What was the contemplated Happy Meal toy tie-in? A Nazi bayonet? Swastika decals?
Me too!
“Rat Patrol”!
Huge mistake. Great story that will make a great film and a big win for another studio.
You treat the audience like kids, they act like kids…That and mind numbed parents, unless its a Pixar pic.
Jerry – PLEASE make this film. It sounds AWESOME – esp. if executed in the above mentioned tones of THE DIRTY DOZEN & MAD MAX.
What timing! After the terrible performance of Prince of Persia and the expected repeat by Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Rich Ross couldn’t stand to make another Bruckheimer stinker! Looks like it’s only Pirates for Jerry at Disney here on out!
and don’t forget G-Force, another Buckheimer / Disney flop. lol Talking Rodents???
Biased because I worked on it, and was once a Hoyt Yeatman employee at DQI, but G-Force was not a flop. Disney may have spent more money on it than they can readily recoup, but that’s not the same thing. The Rommel movie sounds very interesting, but the turnaround perhaps implies that Disney was hasty in letting go of it’s specialty divisions. Popsky’s Private Army has long been one of my favorite books.
How is 2000 Leauges Under the Sea NOT something Disney would do? They are the ones that produced a movie of it in like the 60′s!!
They already made the movie. It was called Inglorious Basterds, wgich was also a remake.
It’s a fine line between Inglorious and Valkyrie. Why bother?
Wild Hogs wasn’t family friendly? Yeah, maybe it appealed more to dad but it was pretty soft, general entertainment and was a surprise money maker. Interesting.
If you think Sorcerer’s Apprentice is going to be a bomb, then you’re INCREDIBLY out of touch. It’s going to be huge.
Oh, it’s gonna bomb hard. Especially since that loser side-kick is nerdier than Cage.
I read this novel when it first came out, and was blown away by the stunning visuals that could’ve been put to film.
Done correctly this might have been a money-maker, with all the chaotic & intense fire-fights that sprang up out of nowhere, the long-running pursuits by the German armored troops, the Brits trying to survive the incredible harshness of the desert as their fuel supplies are slowly running out, and there was even some humor elements as well.
I do hope Jerry finds a home for this project, it’s a story that truly deserves to be told.
The soldiers involved deserve nothing less.
The Brits Couldn’t Kill ‘Rommel’ But Disney Finds A Way – what a great line! Priceless!
Hopefully another Studio will pick up the development money spend!
“The Legend of Bagger Vance”, and Dizmal’s “Pearl Harbor”. Not the two best credits. No mention of “Braveheart”? This has been done before, and better in the printed word. Someone mentioned “Rat Patrol” That was my first thought. I don’t care about “Family” nonsense. That’s all marketing. Studios want to make money. To do it, they will use whatever label gets you to buy tickets.
Moreover, as a Rommel historian, I can tell you that there is much in Rommel’s career that would make a fine action film. Layering (and belaboring) it with unnecessary fiction only detracts and distracts from the man whose guile even won praise from Churchill himself.
“The Desert Rats” and “The Desert Fox” remain the best (If somewhat flawed) film versions of Rommel’s career. I am not saying that a better one cannot be done, but to be blunt, Bruckheimer isn’t noted for historical accuracy, and while I admire the work of Mister Wallace on the whole,his works are hardly paragons of historical virtue. In Rommel, you have just the sort of documented historical figure who cries out for a cracking good film. But it’s a one-time thing, and if it’s tripe, you’ve lost the chance (and likely a ton of money) for a generation. We have too many people who forget that epic period in History. Hundreds of WWII vets are passing away every week. It’s about time that someone honored their history (on both sides) by doing a worthy and worthwhile film.
This poster has an excellent point in indicating that there is so much drama and incident in the life and career of Rommel that there is no need to fictionalize his life: For example, the British sent a commando squad to try to kill Rommel (as dramatised in an overblown way in The Desert Fox); Rommel’s complex relationship with Adolf Hitler; Rommel’s curiously strained relationship with other German field marshalls and generals and the Army high command itself (which is what ultimately may have cost Rommel his life as a sacrifical goat to appease Hitler’s vengeance on the plotters of the July 20, l944 assasination attempt. And my favorite is Winston Churchhill somewhere underground in London, banging his fists up and down on a table like a mad man completely out of control and shouting to whomever was at hand, “Rommel! Rommel! Rommel! What else matters but beating him!”
Rommel was by no means the best German general or field marshall of World War 2. There are several others who were better in the field and had lives at least as dramatic as Rommel’s but as they are largely unknown, why not do a bang up job and get this man’s career and life right because his life and career were drama at its best. Don’t cartoon it up.
and you KNOW it was going to be an awesome movie if the guy who wrote “pearl harbor” was involved in the script!
Good for Disney, hard to believe that Rommel is still alive and a threat though, he must be 110 at least
Disney is trying to re-brand itself. It’s trying to make its logo the family stamp of approval again. This makes sense, and if it’s true, then I admire it. But in reality, because they’re such a big company, they ought to afford to make big-budget gritty/edgy films too, perhaps under some other banner [like Buena Vista Entertainment]. Doing this switch to family-ONLY could be Disney shooting themselves in the foot. There’s a difference between four-quadrant movies and family-friendly movies, and Disney’s made it’s biggest buck off four-quadrant. For example, the top two [non-pixar] Disney movies EVER have been Pirates of the Caribbean and Alice in Wonderland, two edgy four-quadrant movies, NOT two family movies.
It’s funny, we see Ross killing all these projects (remember IMD?), but I’m curious what he’ll bring to the Disney production line, and WHO he brings… assuming he doesn’t scare everybody off first. Even if you include the flops, Bruckheimer’s made Disney several billion dollars. If I were Bruckheimer, I’d be saying “peace out.”
G-Force. Princess of Persia. Confessions of A Shopaholic.
Bruckheimer’s problem is that he hasn’t been able to find a post-millennial action star replacement for Nic Cage. He’s now the Aaron Spelling of tv procedurals, but in feature world Bruckheimer = Suckheimer.
Pressfield is a brilliant writer of historical action. His ancient Greece war novels RULE, Gates of Fire being a frikkin’ masterpiece of asskickery!
Killing Rommell is not in the same league, but it’s still pretty good. A badass action movie (with emphasis on ACTION) of Brit commandos battling Nazis in the desert would kick buttocks….
Sadly, R rated action has gone the way of the dodo, replaced by tween girl vampire porn.
Not surprised it was axed. It’s basically Private Ryan/Black Hawk Down with sand.
Pressfield has several good books that SHOULD be made into movies. The Last of the Amazons would make our woman’s liber’s feel good about themselves. And no one that I know of has made a movie that provided much detail about the lives of real Spartan Soldiers that Pressfield details in The Tides of War. Killing Rommel is the Rat Patrol, plus there are gay moments which the Hollywood types would bet their bippies on.