Francis Lawrence May Direct Unbroken

Francis Lawrence (I Am Legend, Constantine) recently wrapped up work on the film adaptation of Sara Gruen's Water for Elephants, starring Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon, and Christoph Waltz, and now he's in talks to direct Unbroken for Universal Pictures. Deadline reports Universal bought the rights to Laura Hillenbrand's bestseller Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption and the studio's interested in bringing in Crazy Heart's writer/director Scott Cooper to adapt the book.

The World War II era epic tells the amazing true story of Louis Zamperini. Random House offers this description of Hillenbrand's book:

"On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane's bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant's name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he'd been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will."

(Unbroken cover © Random House)

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