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Just as Baby Driver revs its way into theaters, its star Ansel Elgort has signed on to play a young John F. Kennedy in MAYDAY 109, the Tracking Board has confirmed.
Veteran producers Basil Iwanyk and Beau Flynn are teaming up to produce under their respective production companies Thunder Road and FlynnPictureCo. Elgort and his manager Emily Gerson Saines will also produce the film, which was written by Keeper of the Diary scribes Samuel Franco and Evan Kilgore. There’s no director attached yet, but it shouldn’t be long before a filmmaker is found.
Mayday 109 tells the true story of Kennedy’s heroic feats as a Navy captain during WWII, when his PT boat was attacked and sunk by a convoy of Japanese destroyers, leading to one of the most dramatic rescues in Naval history.
“We love that this is not a biopic nor a film about politics. This is simply a riveting and unbelievable tale that very few people know — about a young man who was a hero long before becoming the iconic 35th President of the United States,” Iwanyk told Deadline, which broke the news of Elgort’s casting.
Since breaking out in The Fault In Our Stars and the Divergent trilogy, Elgort has wrapped the indie movie November Criminals with Chloe Grace Moretz and the true crime thriller Billionaire Boys Club, which re-teams him with his Baby Driver co-star Kevin Spacey. He’s represented by CAA and Brookside Artist Management.
Jeff Sneider | Editor in Chief
