Chris Hemsworth and Michael Shannon to Play HORSE SOLDIERS in New Movie
When I first heard that an upcoming movie had the title Horse Soldiers, I immediately imagined it as a Fantastic Mr. Fox-style animated project about horses who served in some sort of military unit. But alas, that's not actually what the movie will be.
THR reports that Chris Hemsworth and Michael Shannon will star in this true story about U.S. Special Forces members who were "deployed to the mountainous regions of Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11 to flush out the Taliban...on horseback." Peter Craig (The Town, Blood Father) and Ted Tally (The Silence of The Lambs) wrote the screenplay, which is based on Doug Stanton's book.
That's some strong writing talent, and if nothing else, I'm interested to see how Hemsworth and Shannon interact on screen because they're two actors I never really thought would end up working together. They're sort of an odd pairing (but not in an overtly comic or ridiculous way like Schwarzenegger and DeVito in Twins), and it should be fascinating to see what the tone of this film ends up being. No word yet on a director, but you can get a better sense of the story by reading the synopsis of Stanton's book below:
From the New York Times bestselling author of In Harm’s Way comes a true-life story of American soldiers overcoming great odds to achieve a stunning military victory.
Horse Soldiers is the dramatic account of a small band of Special Forces soldiers who secretly entered Afghanistan following 9/11 and rode to war on horses against the Taliban. Outnumbered forty to one, they pursued the enemy army across the mountainous Afghanistan terrain and, after a series of intense battles, captured the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, which was strategically essential to defeat their opponent throughout the country.
The bone-weary American soldiers were welcomed as liberators as they rode into the city, and the streets thronged with Afghans overjoyed that the Taliban regime had been overthrown.
Then the action took a wholly unexpected turn. During a surrender of six hundred Taliban troops, the Horse Soldiers were ambushed by the would-be POWs. Dangerously overpowered, they fought for their lives in the city’s immense fortress, Qala-i-Janghi, or the House of War. At risk were the military gains of the entire campaign: if the soldiers perished or were captured, the entire effort to outmaneuver the Taliban was likely doomed.
Deeply researched and beautifully written, Stanton’s account of the Americans’ quest to liberate an oppressed people touches the mythic. The soldiers on horses combined ancient strategies of cavalry warfare with twenty-first-century aerial bombardment technology to perform a seemingly impossible feat. Moreover, their careful effort to win the hearts of local townspeople proved a valuable lesson for America’s ongoing efforts in Afghanistan.