After blowing up half of Riyadh in The Kingdom, director Peter Berg continues to terrorise cinema audiences with the news that he's set to direct an as-yet untitled film about the kidnapping oil heir John Paul Getty III.
Based on the book "Painfully Rich: The Outrageous Fortune and Misfortunes of the Heirs of J. Paul Getty”, the story concentrates on the kidnapping of the 16 year-old boy in 1973. The kidnappers asked for $17 million, which John Paul Getty, the family patriarch, refused to pay, suspecting it was a money-making scheme by his rather wild grandson. It was only when the kidnappers sent the boy's ear in the post that the ransom was paid, and Getty was found in Southern Italy - but the kidnappers were never captured.
Robin Shushan is set to write the script, after her current work adapting The Contortoinist's Handbook finishes, but don't expect to see this one go into production pre-strike, as Berg is still working on Hancock, the much-retitled Will Smith superhero drama for next summer, and may not have time to get this off the ground before June.