Michael Bay has a reputation in Hollywood, and that reputation is not very good. His movies, ranging from The Rock to Armageddon to the Transformers movie series make a lot of money, but they are not well-received by critics. Most criticize his work as being too full of explosions and short-attention span editing, but he is about to take on some real subject matter with 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi. This is what is known about the film's release date and other news.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, an American ambassador and three other Americans were killed in the attack on a diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012 (the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks) by Islamist militants. The film will focus on the ex-military security team who defended the compound against the militants.
According to Variety, Paramount pictures just released a trailer to the film, and it looks like Bay is abandoning his formula for excessive explosions and going for a film with a gritty, realistic quality. This could signal a change for the director who might be attempting to make films that are less for the teenage boy demographic, and it is welcome.
The movie is based on a book 13 Hours: A Firsthand Account of What Really Happened in Benghzi by Mitchell Zuckoff. Four Americans were killed in the attacks: U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith, as well as CIA contractors Tyrone S. Woods and Glen Doherty. The trailer notes "When everything went wrong, six men had the courage to do what was right".
The film will feature some interesting casting choices such as John Krasinski (best known for playing the laid-back Jim Halpert on The Office) and Pablo Schreiber (who recently played "Pornstache", a prison guard on Orange is the New Black). Other cast members include James Badge Dale, Max Martini, Toby Stephens, David Denmen, Dominic Fumusa, and Freddie Stroma according to the imdb page.
The film is set for a release date of January 15, 2016. In case you are not aware, January is considered the worst time to release a film, and is often when the studios dump the films that they know will not succeed. It is a challenge to have a hit film during this time, but if the film is true to its source material and doesn't go into Bay's trademark melodrama, then Bay could have another hit on his hands, for entirely different reasons than his previous works.
As I have said before, this would be welcome, as Michael Bay is a very competent film director who is capable of some big movies, but he needs to take it to the next level and produce films for more mature audiences. If that is the case, then he will definitely not be game for Transformers 5, which we have previously reported that he is attached to that project as a producer and not a director.
