While Paramount focused on the high-octane nature of Michael Bay’s high-profile thriller 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi for last week’s explosive trailers, this time around the studio is drawing attention to the harrowing stories of the real-life American who experienced the controversial event first-hand, and how their tales of bravery will be depicted in January’s thriller.
Featuring the voices of Mark ‘Oz’ Geist, Kris ‘Tanto’ Paronto and John ‘Tig’ Tiegen, today’s featurette pairs their accounts of the events that unfolded in Libya circa 2012 with never-before-seen footage from the actioner, along with a peek behind the scenes of Michael Bay’s latest feature film. Putting the politics to one side, as one voice reveals, 13 Hours is really a story about what happened for the boots on the ground, and such an approach has garnered their backing: “We decided that the story that was being told wasn’t what happened that night. So we wanted to get it out there.”
Even if the final product adopts an action first, story second approach – such is the Michael Bay way – it’s heartening to know that these marines were involved during the film’s development, in whatever capacity deemed fit. In drawing inspiration from Mitchell Zuckoff’s eye-opening novel, 13 Hours will focus on the titular half-dozen secret soldiers, who are forced to batten down the hatches and defend a U.S. embassy from an attack.
Three years ago, the assault lead to the death of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. Toplining the film as one of the core marines is John Krasinski along with James Badge Dale (The Departed), Max Martini (Captain Phillips), Pablo Schreiber (Orange Is the New Black), and David Denman. The Strain‘s Chuck Hogan penned the script.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is slated for a release on January 15, 2016.
