EXCLUSIVE: Ron Howard is no stranger to taking real life stories and adapting them into incredible cinematic experiences and he looks to have found that next powerful story to tell as sources tell Deadline Howard has come on to direct the Amazon MGM Studios drama Alone At Dawn with Adam Driver and Anne Hathaway set to star. Amazon will release the film in theaters.The film falls under Amazon MGM’s recently renewed first-look film deal with Brian Grazer and Howard’s Imagine Entertainment.
Producers include Imagine Entertainment, The Hideaway Entertainment, and Thruline Entertainment, in addition to Kristy Grisham, William Connor, and Patrick Newall. Michael Russell Gunn will executive produce. Michael Russell Gunn penned the script, with previous revisions by Erin Cressida Wilson and Amy Herzog.
The film is based on the book of the same name by Dan Schilling and Lori Longfritz and is inspired by an incredible true story. Years after Air Force Combat Controller John Chapman fought to the death to save his fellow soldiers, an intelligence officer strives to prove his valor—leading an investigation that would ultimately secure him the Medal of Honor. Schilling is a military consultant on the movie and, like Chapman, was also a Combat Control Technician. Lori Chapman Longfritz is the sister of John Chapman.
While the story is incredible on its own, the journey the project has made to get to this point is just as impressive. Thruline Entertainment brought the manuscript of Alone at Dawn, by authors Dan Schilling and Lori Chapman Longfritz, to The Hideaway Entertainment who optioned it in a heated bidding war before it became a New York Times bestseller.
The Hideaway Entertainment hired Gunn to adapt the script and following Gunn’s adaptation, The Hideaway Entertainment brought the project to Imagine Entertainment. Howard was so impressed by the story he decided to come on as director and the project was soon set up at Amazon MGM and Wilson was hired for rewrites.
Howard would then focus on finding the actor to portray the character at the center of the story and ultimately landed on Driver, who is not only an Oscar-nominated actor but a former Marine who has always had interest in participating in a project on the military but only if it was the right story to tell. Once Driver was on board earlier this year the next step was to find his co-star that was essential to the story. In recent weeks, the script found its way to Hathaway and following a meeting with Howard and producers, was on board to star opposite Driver.
Howard is no stranger to telling these larger then life stories with his some of his hit true life adaptations including Apollo 13 and A Beautiful Mind, which not only won Best Picture but landed Howard his first Oscar for directing. His most recent film for Amazon was Thirteen Lives, which told the incredible rescue of the youth soccer team in Thailand.
Hathaway is currently filming The Devil Wears Prada 2 and has also completed filming on Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey. Most recently, Hathaway can be seen starring opposite Jessica Chastain in Mother’s Instinct. Other recent works include Amazon MGM Studio’s The Idea of You,Vertical’s She Came to Me, Focus Features’s Armageddon Time, and an adaptation of Eileen, Moshfegh’s 2015 debut coming-of-age novel. Hathaway can next be seen in Mother Mary, directed by David Lowery and Verity, based on the bestselling Colleen Hoover book. Earlier this year, she wrapped production for Flowervale Street, which is set for release in 2026. Hathaway is also set to reprise her role as Mia Thermopolis in the third installment of The Princess Diaries.
Driver will next be seen in Jim Jarmusch’s upcoming Father Mother Sister Brother, and James Gray’s Paper Tiger. Driver has garnered Academy Award nominations for his roles in Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story and Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman. His many film credits include Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, Michael Mann’s Ferrari, Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci and The Last Duel, Noah Baumbach’s White Noise, Leos Carax’s Annette, Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson, Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, Steven Soderbergh’s Logan Lucky, and Martin Scorsese’s Silence to name a few. He is widely known for his role as Kylo Ren in the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
Hathaway is represented by CAA, Entertainment 360 and Sloane Offer. Driver is represented by WME and Robert Offer of Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern. Gunn is represented by Artists First, WME and attorney David Fox. Cressida Wilson is represented by CAA, Art/Work Entertainment and Schreck Rose.
