EXCLUSIVE: No Way Out: The Searing True Story of Men Under Siege tells the story of Easy Company, a unit of Paras and Royal Irish rangers that was tasked with holding a district in Helmand province in July 2006 during the war in Afghanistan.
That story, by Major Adam Jowett, who led the unit, is now being developed as a feature film by Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
Deadline understands that Matt Charman, the Oscar-nominated writer of Bridge of Spies, is writing the adaptation for Netflix as part of its deal with Harry and Meghan’s Archewell.
It marks the latest feature project in the works for the company, which segued from an overall deal to a first-look pact last year.
In Helmand province in July 2006, Major Adam Jowett was given command of Easy Company, a hastily assembled and under-strength unit of Paras and Royal Irish rangers. Their mission was to hold the District Centre of Musa Qala at any cost. Easy Company found themselves in a ramshackle compound, cut off and heavily outnumbered by the Taliban in the town.
In the book, Jowett evokes the heat and chaos of battle as the Taliban hit Easy Company with wave after wave of brutal attack. He describes what it was like to have responsibility for the lives of his men as they fought back heroically over twenty-one days and nights of relentless, nerve-shredding combat. Finally, as they came down to their last rounds and death stared Easy Company in the face, the siege took an extraordinary turn.
The book was published by Pan Macmillan in 2019. It has been described as an “emotional” story in the vein of Black Hawk Down and The Bridge on the River Kwai. It’s a project close to Harry as he was deployed twice on active service in Afghanistan including in Helmand Province.
Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and Tracy Ryerson, who heads up scripted content, will produce for Archewell.
In addition to writing the Steven Spielberg-directed and Tom Hanks-starring spy thriller, Charman wrote and served as showrunner for Netflix’s Treason, created and ran Netflix political thriller Hostage, which starred Suranne Jones and Julie Delpy, and created, wrote and produced Prisoner for Sky. He is also writing Dirty for Amazon in the UK, which begins production in September. He produces these shows through his production company Binocular Productions.
It is the latest feature project for Harry and Meghan, who are producing an adaptation of The Wedding Date, written by Tracey Oliver, for the streamer, and are developing an adaptation of Carley Fortune’s Meet Me At The Lake.
On the TV side, they are developing a polo-themed drama written by Francisca X. Hu and produced with and Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage’s Fake Empire.
There has been a lot of noise about the pair’s work with Netflix recently. Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria said earlier this year at a press event, “We still have a relationship with them. We have movies in development with them. We have an amazing doc with them. They have things in development on the TV and film side. Deals come and go all the time, and we don’t renew so many deals, those just don’t get as much press for obvious reasons. There’s no juicy story there.”
Charman is repped by CAA, Untitled and Independent in the UK
English (US) ·