Exclusive: Warner Bros. has inked a deal to develop a film about the unlikely father of the Israeli Air Force, and Aaron Sorkin will write the script and possibly direct.
Deal includes The greatest American gift to Israel“, an article published in Business Insider. The film will be produced by Gotham Group's Eric Robinson and Elaine Goldsmith Finn, who are producing at Save me from anywherewith Scott Cooper to direct Jeremy Allen White in a drama about the existential crisis that Bruce Springsteen suffered during the writing and recording of his breakthrough album nebraska.
Prominent wordsmith Sorkin, whose recent credits include Being Ricardos, Trial of the Chicago 7 And Broadway To Kill a Mockingbirdwill tell the story of Al Schwimmer, a post-World War II arms smuggler who helped create the Israeli Air Force, which helped the fledgling nation survive.
Prime Minister Rabin (right), Minister of Defense. Peres (center) and IAI Director Al Schwimmer before the inauguration of the Kfir aircraft.
National Photo Collection
Schwimmer was a World War II veteran from Connecticut. In 1948, in the wake of the Holocaust, a homeland for the Jewish state was being carved out of Arab lands, and countries like Egypt and Jordan prepared to expel these new neighbors. America, which was not keen on igniting the Cold War in Middle Eastern countries, publicly announced that it would not provide military aid to Israel. Schwimmer was the mastermind of a secret, illegal international operation that the article describes as one part Argo and one part Mission: Impossible. Schwimmer joined the Haganah, a secret Jewish paramilitary organization, and formed a group of World War II veterans who defied the US embargo to smuggle 125 military aircraft and more than 50,000 weapons into Palestine. Volunteer accomplices included Bugsy Siegel's publicist, mobster Meyer Lansky, Pee-wee Herman's father, Milton Rubenfeld, and Frank Sinatra.
Many rifles and other weapons came from Czechoslovakia and were used by the Nazis. Accounts say that this measure helped save Israel by giving it a fighting chance in the war by achieving air superiority. Later, Schwimmer and his accomplices turned themselves in; Most of them were Jews, and they claimed that seeing the gross cruelty and genocide committed against Jews in the Holocaust strengthened their resolve to make a valid moral choice. While they were spared prison time, Schwimmer and others were fined and stripped of their civil rights. Schwimmer declined the pardon request at the time, but was pardoned anyway by President Bill Clinton in 2001. He died a decade later.
Aaron Sorkin
Getty Images
The heroic exploits of Schwimmer and his comrades have been depicted in numerous documentaries. There's a 2015 PBS document A wing and a prayer Directed by Boaz Dvir, who interviewed Schwimmer and many of the remaining troops. The prevailing view was that their efforts prevented a second Holocaust. There is also a film directed by Roberta Grossman Above and beyond document, and Where I Stand: The Hank Greenspun Storyabout propaganda Bugsy Siegel who fought for Israel.
Sorkin, who separately works on the continuity of the theme he addresses in his script Social networkis represented by WME.
