Lionsgate and Participant are currently courting Jane The Virgin star Gina Rodriguez for a leading role in Deepwater Horizon. Directed by Peter Berg (Lone Survivor), the film has Mark Walhberg attached to star in a disaster actioner based on the events surrounding the BP oil spill in 2010.
The cataclysmic explosion took place in the Gulf of Mexico aboard the oil rig Deepwater Horizon, which led to the world’s largest reported oil spillage that took the lives of many riggers caught on deck, and continued to seep oil into the ocean for three months.
The aforementioned studios consolidated forces to snare the rights back in 2011 to a New York Times article detailing the disaster. “Deepwater Horizon’s Final Hour,” written by David Barstow, David Rohde and Stephanie Saul has since been adapted into a screenplay by Berg’s long-time collaborator Matthew Michael Carnahan.
Rodriguez, who reportedly beat Kristen Stewart for the role, is attached to play Andrea Fleytas, a navigator aboard the doomed rig who alerted the coast guard some time after the explosion once noticing that no-one had yet raised an alarm. After sending off a distress signal, Fleytas was reprimanded for her actions. She will star alongside Wahlberg, who plays electrician Mike Williams.
No word on when principal photography is expected to begin, but with Deepwater Horizon now on the calendar for release on September 30, 2016, Berg and his crew are likely to commence shortly for what sounds like a big budget affair.
