Shortly after his festival hit Ain't Them Bodies Saints was released into theaters, red-hot director David Lowery became attached to The Yellow Birds, an Iraq War drama based on Kevin Powers' novel. There hasn't been any progress on it until now with the addition of Benedict Cumberbatch and two up 'n coming stars to the cast.
Cumberbatch, Will Poulter (We're the Millers), and Tye Sheridan (Mud) have joined the film which centers on two young soldiers trying to stay alive and maintain their sanity during the Iraq War. The two main characters are 21 and 18 years of age so we can assume they'll be portrayed by Poulter and Sheridan. This was Powers' first novel and it won The Guardian's First Book award and was a National Book Award finalist.
Lowery has a busy slate ahead of him so it's unclear where The Yellow Birds will fit in. Check out the full synopsis below. [ScreenDaily]
A novel written by a veteran of the war in Iraq, The Yellow Birds is the harrowing story of two young soldiers trying to stay alive.
"The war tried to kill us in the spring." So begins this powerful account of friendship and loss. In Al Tafar, Iraq, twenty-one-year old Private Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Murphy cling to life as their platoon launches a bloody battle for the city. Bound together since basic training when Bartle makes a promise to bring Murphy safely home, the two have been dropped into a war neither is prepared for.
In the endless days that follow, the two young soldiers do everything to protect each other from the forces that press in on every side: the insurgents, physical fatigue, and the mental stress that comes from constant danger. As reality begins to blur into a hazy nightmare, Murphy becomes increasingly unmoored from the world around him and Bartle takes actions he could never have imagined.
With profound emotional insight, especially into the effects of a hidden war on mothers and families at home, The Yellow Birds is a groundbreaking novel that is destined to become a classic.
