HBO takes on Walter Reed

HBO Plans Film About Walter Reed Fiasco
Michael Flemming


Variety Magazine

Apr 15, 2008

April 13, 2008 - HBO Films has acquired rights to a series of Washington Post articles about the neglect of wounded soldiers moved from Walter Reed Hospital to outpatient facilities.
Ron Nyswaner has been set to write a telepic.

The Post's series won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for reporters Dana Priest and Anne Hull, along with photographer Michel du Cille.

The series created outrage that reached Capitol Hill and prompted Congressional hearings and reforms, after the investigative articles revealed that there was no support system for disoriented and gravely injured vets who were left feeling angry and disrespected by bureaucratic ineptitude that left them fending for themselves.

"The film will be about how four ordinary people, who put their lives on the line for their country, came back injured and were then abused and ignored by the crown jewel of the military," said 4-Screen Media's Larry Lyttle, who'll exec produce with Helpern Co.'s David Helpern. "The system ignored them until they took on the military at the highest levels, and at Congressional hearings."

One of the protagonists will likely be Staff Sgt. John Daniel Shannon, a 43-year-old sniper whose eye and skull were shattered by an enemy bullet. Told there was no record he was a soldier, he had to produce his Purple Heart in order to get a free uniform to replace the blood-soaked one he arrived in. He and others set up a support system to help the neglected vets.

Nyswaner most recently scripted "The Painted Veil."
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/articleid/9837