Clint Eastwood Eyeing Film About Kidnapped American Aid Worker Jessica Buchanan

By Justin Kroll

In typical Clint Eastwood fashion, the seemingly ageless auteur is already setting up his next directing gig even as his latest pic Sully is playing in theaters.

Sources tell Variety that Warner Bros. has optioned Impossible Odds, an autobiography by Jessica Buchanan and Anthony Flacco. The American humanitarian aid worker was kidnapped by Somali militants and later rescued by a Navy SEAL team in 2012. Eastwood is considering the pic as his next project.

Brian Helgeland is writing the script. Greg Silverman and Julia Spiro are overseeing production.

Flacco and Sharlene Martin of Martin Literary Management are attached as Associate Producers.

Related: The Beauty of ‘Sully’: How Clint Eastwood Turned Chesley Sullenberger Into a Countercultural Hero

The story tells the tale of Buchanan, who traveled to Somalia to help children only to be kidnapped by militants and held for ransom for 93 days. Her captors were killed by SEALs in a dramatic rescue mission.

Eastwood has become increasingly interested in films about ordinary people who are thrown into extraordinary situations and rise to the challenge, such as box office hit American Sniper and Sully.

Since opening last month, Eastwood’s Sully has become a hit, grossing $167 million worldwide including $113 million domestically. The biopic has received rave reviews for both Eastwood’s directing and Tom Hanks performance as Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot who landed a commuter jet in the Hudson River in 2009.