Second Iraq War on Film

Originally Published: December 21, 2004

Universal is developing Hollywood’s first feature film about the current Iraq war, and Harrison Ford is set to play a U.S. general in the project.

The film would be based on the upcoming, No True Glory book, which details the battle for the city of Falluja by Bing West, a Marine veteran and former U.S. assistant defense secretary who now covers the war as a foreign correspondent.

Double Features, a Universal-based production company, optioned movie rights to the book, which will be adapted by West himself and West’s son, Owen. The book is due out in May of 2005.

In the movie, Ford would play Maj. Gen. James Mattis, the U.S. Marine commander ordered to lead an assault on the Iraqi city of Falluja, an insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, after four Americans contractors were killed and mutilated there by a mob in March 2004. The offensive was halted the following month, and Marines were withdrawn until U.S. forces renewed the assault on the city following the American presidential election in November.

In 1996, Denzel Washington and Meg Ryan starred in Courage Under Fire, a fictional drama about the first war in Iraq, Desert Storm.