Monahan Writing Essex
March 27th, 2009 in Drama, Screenwriting -
Variety reports that GK Films is developing the historical drama The Essex with writer William Monahan (The Departed).
He has written the script and is in talks to direct the drama. It will focus on Captain David S. Porter and his daring sea battles against the British during the War of 1812.
Porter steered the Essex past British cruisers to reach the Pacific where it devastated the British whaling fleet before engaging in a final battle with a special English squadron.
Monahan had actually written a script about Captain David S. Porter way back in 1994. In his New York Press essay “Whale’s Jaw” he takes a few paragraphs to talk about Captain Porter and writes at one point, “While [Porter] was ashore on Nuku Hiva, he not only fought a bloody high-cinema war with the warlike Typees, he annexed the island, and committed the first act of extraterritorial American imperialism. Don’t even think of writing the screenplay. I’ve got it registered.”
He continues on for several more paragraphs in “Whale’s Jaw” about Porter’s adventures. Should be an awesome film. BTW, if you want to read Monahan’s masterpiece at New York Press check out Dining Late with Claude La Badarian (serialized in 2001).
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