Steven Spielberg and J.J. Abrams Team Up to Develop a Syrian Refugee Drama
Stephen Spielberg and J.J. Abrams are teaming up to produce a film based on the true-life story of a Syrian refugee woman named Doaa Al Zamed. These are two powerful, talented filmmakers, so the fact that are coming together to develop this film, says something about how powerful the story is.
According to The Wrap, the film is based on a book called A Hope More Powerful Than the Sea: One Refugee’s Incredible Story of Love, Loss, and Survival by Melissa Fleming. Paramount Pictures and Amblin Entertainment acquired the rights to the book, which follows a 19-year-old Al Zamed as she escapes her war-torn homeland for Egypt right before the government was overthrown. If that's not compelling enough, as she sets off to Europe for a better life, she is given two toddlers by two other refugees to care for, and she is forced to survive the long dark road that she embarked on with these kids... in an inflatable water ring.
That sounds like an insanely intense ordeal, and I can't even begin to imagine what that would have been like. Here's a description of the book that offers more details on her experience:
Adrift in a frigid sea, no land in sight―just debris from the ship’s wreckage and floating corpses all around―nineteen-year-old Doaa Al Zamel floats with a small inflatable water ring around her waist and clutches two children, barely toddlers, to her body. The children had been thrust into Doaa’s arms by their drowning relatives, all refugees who boarded a dangerously overcrowded ship bound for Sweden and a new life. For days, Doaa floats, prays, and sings to the babies in her arms. She must stay alive for these children. She must not lose hope.”
There are no casting details yet, but with Spielberg and Abrams leading the charge on this film, you can bet it going to be an amazing film. The two previously worked together on the '80s throwback sci-fi adventure film Super 8.