‘Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421’ – Paul Greengrass Directing Adaptation of Hot Thriller Novel

Author T.J. Newman’s Falling: A Novel is being turned into a feature film over at Universal, and Deadline reports today that Newman’s follow-up Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421 is getting its own movie adaptation from Warner Bros. Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips, Jason Bourne) will write, direct and produce the upcoming film adaptation.

Deadline notes, “The novel quickly hit the New York Times bestseller list and was named a Best Book of the Year by Amazon, Waterstones and other major publications and booksellers.”

A hot bidding war ensued for the rights to turn Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421 into a feature film, with Warner Bros. winning the war against other seven-figure bids.

“In Drowning, a plane crashes in the Pacific Ocean six minutes after takeoff and is flooded after an explosion during evacuation. A dozen survivors sink in a sealed part of the aircraft as it perches precariously on an undersea cliff 200 feet below the surface. Among them is an engineer and his 11-year-old daughter. His estranged wife — she’s also the girl’s mother — is part of the elite rescue team that races to save the passengers before their air runs out.”

Paul Greengrass will produce the movie adaptation with Shane Salerno and The Story Factory and Greg Goodman, with Newman and Amy Lord serving as executive producers.