Film rights sold to NYT article on Gulf oil spill

[March 09, 2011]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The New York Times' dramatic 8,500-word story about the April 20, 2010, oil rig explosion off Louisiana's Gulf Coast, which killed 11 people and led to the worst spill in U.S. history, is being made into a movie.

Summit Entertainment, Participant Media and Imagenation Abu Dhabi said Tuesday that they have acquired the film rights to the article, "Deepwater Horizon's Final Hour," published on Dec. 25 and written by David Barstow, David Rohde and Stephanie Saul.

Matthew Sand will write the screenplay. Talks are ongoing to have "Transformers" producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura produce the project under his Di Bonaventura Pictures banner.

Summit, the studio behind the "Twilight" franchise, said the film will portray the heroism of Deepwater's crew and evoke the raw emotion depicted in the newspaper piece.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.