The Deepwater Horizon oil disaster looks set to become a
drama on the big screen after Abu Dhabi-backed film fund Imagenation snapped up
the rights to the story.
The fund has teamed up with Summit, the studio behind ‘Twilight’,
and Participant Media to dramatise the moments leading up to the disastrous oil
spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year.
The companies have
bought rights to a New York Times article published in December that tracked the
”raw emotion” of those who worked on the oil rig in the final minutes leading
up to the explosion that caused the spill.
Eleven workers were killed and another 17 injured last April
when methane gas from the well shot up out of the drill column and caught fire,
creating the worst accidental oil spill in history.
When the well was finally capped in July, nearly five
million barrels of crude had entered the water, devastating local wildlife.
“This film will portray the great heroism that took
place last year on the Deepwater Horizon rig and how colleagues so courageously
came to each other’s aid,” said producer Erik Feig of Summit
Entertainment.
The New York Times article depicted the panicked moments of
the crew as the explosion tore through the rig.
“Men admired for their toughness wept,” reads an early paragraph. “Several said
their prayers and jumped into the oily seas 60 feet below. An overwhelmed young
crew member, Andrea Fleytas, finally screamed what so many were thinking:
“We’re going to die!”
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