With the “Transformers” franchise behind him, Michael Bay is already targeting production on his next film.
Sources tell Variety that John Krasinski is in talks to star in Paramount’s “13 Hours,” which has Bay directing and recounts the attack on the U.S. Special Mission Compound and a nearby CIA Annex in Benghazi, Libya, on the 11th anniversary of Sept. 11.
Krasinski will play one of the lead roles, a Navy SEAL, in the real-life thriller.
Chuck Hogan penned the script based on Mitchell Zuckoff’s book “Thirteen Hours: A Firsthand Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi,” to which Paramount acquired rights in February before it was published. Erwin Stoff produces through 3 Arts Entertainment’s production shingle.
Several actors had been reading for roles in the film, including Walton Goggins and Shea Whigham, but sources say it was Krasinski who blew Bay away in an early meeting for casting one of the starring roles.
Following the end of his hit TV show “The Office,” Krasinski has been patient in finding his next project. In the past he had not normally gone after roles in tentpole pics such as “13 Hours,” preferring prestige films like “Promised Land” and the Sam Mendes movie “Away We Go.”
Krasinski can be seen next in the untitled Cameron Crowe pic starring Emma Stone and Bradley Cooper. He is repped by WME
