Continuing to ramp up their scripted programming, National Geographic Channel is developing a miniseries, based on Martha Raddatz’s best-selling novel “The Long Road Home,” the cabler announced Monday.
Mike Medavoy will exec produce with Jason Clark, Benjamin Anderson and Edward McGurn, while “The 33” writer Mikko Alanne has been tapped to adapt the book for television.
“The Long Road Home” takes place on April 4, 2004, the day that became known in military annals as “Black Sunday,” when a newly arrived platoon from the First Cavalry Division in Fort Hood, Texas, was ambushed in Sadr City in Baghdad. The miniseries will chronicle the events of the day in the exact length of the battle — eight hours, seven minutes, 34 seconds — from first enemy contact just after 4 p.m. to its resolution just after midnight.
“We are working with masterful story crafters — Mike Medavoy, who has produced some of the most iconic military features ever made, Jason Clark, and Mikko Alanne — to tell a remarkable story about courage. It is a universal and timeless story about warriors and families, of brotherhood, hope, loyalty, and survival. It is rooted in authenticity that is core to National Geographic brand and we hope to tell a gripping, true story of survival,” said NatGeo’s CEO Courteney Monroe.
Medavoy commented, “I’m thrilled to be in business with National Geographic, who bring quality programming to worldwide audiences. We aspire to take viewers both into the terrifying, chaotic realm of soldiers at war, as we did in ‘Platoon,’ but also we will take you into the lives of their families back in Texas, as they learn of the battle. We continue our relationship with critically acclaimed Mikko Alanne and know that along with National Geographic Channel and Ways and Means Productions, we’ll tell a story that resonates in today’s headlines.”
Clark added, “‘The Long Road Home’ is a story about ordinary people trapped by circumstances outside their control. The battle they fight is not for politics or ideas, but for each other, for their families, simply to live and to return. But not all will. Not even those who do come home alive. Because this is also a story about our veterans, and what happens to them after the battle is over.”
The development deal was brokered by WME’s Andrew Mathes and Greg Hodes.
Alanne is repped by CAA and Media Talent Group; Medavoy, Anderson and McGurn are repped by Gang Tyre Ramer Brown; and Clark is repped by Jackoway Tyerman Wertheimer Austen Mandelbaum Morris & Klein.
