Mark Wahlburg is everywhere right now. Somehow between fighting robots and bickering with Denzel Washington he had time to shoot Lone Survivor, a Navy SEAL movie based on the New York Times best-seller of the same name. OK, so the book is actually titled Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10, but it’s close enough.
Starring Mark Wahlberg, LONE SURVIVOR tells the story of four Navy SEALs on an ill-fated covert mission to neutralize a high-level Taliban operative who are ambushed by enemy forces in the Hindu Kush region of Afghanistan. Based on The New York Times bestseller, this story of heroism, courage and survival directed by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) also stars Taylor Kitsch, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster and Eric Bana. LONE SURVIVOR will be released by Universal Pictures in platform engagements on Friday, December 27, 2013, and will go wide on Friday, January 10, 2014.
The downside to movies based on a true story is that it’s easy to find out what happens. The title was probably a dead giveaway as well. The upside is that when the audience already knows the outcome, the pressure is on the director to make something we want to watch every minute of instead of just finding out what happens.