This is one of those weeks that could totally define Adam Driver and his full range of abilities. We'll be seeing him in two totally different roles in Jim Jarmusch's Paterson and Martin Scorsese's Silence as both films expand to larger audiences. For those who only know him from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this could be quite the eye opener. He's got other projects cooking, of course, and the latest will find him working along Sylvester Stallone.
Deadline reports Stallone will direct and co-star in an adaptation of the military novel Tough as They Come, with Driver in the lead. The novel is based on the memoir by U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Travis Mills, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who survived becoming a quadruple amputee. Incredible. Stallone will play Mills's father-in-law. Here's the book synopsis:
Thousands of soldiers die year to defend their country. United States Army Staff Sergeant Travis Mills was sure that he would become another statistic when, during his third tour of duty in Afghanistan, he was caught in an IED blast four days before his twenty-fifth birthday. Against the odds, he lived, but at a severe cost—Travis became one of only five soldiers from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to survive a quadruple amputation.
Suddenly forced to reconcile with the fact that he no longer had arms or legs, Travis was faced with a future drastically different from the one he had imagined for himself. He would never again be able to lead his squad, stroke his fingers against his wife’s cheek, or pick up his infant daughter.
Travis struggled through the painful and anxious days of rehabilitation so that he could regain the strength to live his life to the fullest. With enormous willpower and endurance, the unconditional love of his family, and a generous amount of faith, Travis shocked everyone with his remarkable recovery. Even without limbs, he still swims, dances with his wife, rides mountain bikes, and drives his daughter to school.
Travis inspires thousands every day with his remarkable journey. He doesn’t want to be thought of as wounded. “I’m just a man with scars,” he says, “living life to the fullest and best I know how.”
This will likely be a very personal project for Driver, who enlisted in the military post 9/11 but received a medical discharge, and thus pursued his acting career. He went on to start Arts In The Armed Forces, which brings live performances to all branches of the military. Pretty cool.
