Mark Boal

Can’t (game) stop, won’t (game) stop.

Shortly after midnight on June 25, 1967, shots were heard outside of the Algiers Motel in Detroit, Michigan. A group of state and local policemen and National Guardsmen entered the motel looking for an alleged sniper. The night ended with three black teenagers dead and nine others brutally beaten. The horrific incident, which took place during the Detroit riot, is the focus of Kathryn Bigelow’s latest examination of American history. An excellent piece of powerful, dramatic filmmaking, Detroit is one of the most harrowing films you’ll see this year with a wealth of charged performances. But Bigelow’s film, written by Mark Boal (Zero Dark Thirty, The Hurt Locker), suffers from too broad a title – this movie should more accurately be titled The Algiers Motel – and thus too broad a scope.

The final spot for Kathryn Bigelow’s new historical drama pulls no punches.

Jaume Collet-Sera makes some damn enjoyable thrillers, from his directorial debut (the totally wackadoo horror flick Orphan) to his action collaborations with Liam Neeson and last year’s awesome shark movie The Shallows, the director has consistently delivered films that are entertaining and look great — though none have dealt in particularly serious subject matter. That’s about to change with Waco, an upcoming film from Zero Dark Thirty scribe Mark Boal that centers on the famous 1993 standoff in Texas between the FBI and David Koresh’s Brand Davidians.

As a lifelong journalist, Mark Boal has always been an accomplished chronicler of modern American war, but he only got famous for it when he took his act to the movies. Boal earned an Academy Award for writing The Hurt Locker and then scooped up a nomination a few years later when he re-teamed with Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty. The partners-in-war-crime will reunite for a film set during the 1967 riots in Detroit, but you can’t keep Boal away from hot-button geopolitical issues for long. Today brings the news that for his next trick, Boal will tackle what’s shaping up to be one of the greatest crises in American history.

We didn’t think we could get much more excited about Kathryn Bigelow’s new project, but then the Oscar-winning director began assembling her cast, and it’s already pretty impressive. Joining John Boyega in the untitled Detroit riots drama are The Revenant’s Will Poulter, Sing Street’s Jack Reynor, Ben O’Toole and Anthony Mackie — the latter of whom previously worked with Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal on The Hurt Locker.

Kathryn Bigelow hasn’t made a film since Zero Dark Thirty, but given the greatness of her last couple of features, it’s hardly surprising that the director has taken her time in carefully selecting her next project. We’ve been patiently waiting to see what Bigelow will deliver next, and it looks as though she’s finally lined up another film. Bigelow will re-team with Zero Dark Thirty screenwriter Mark Boal for a true crime drama set in Detroit in the ’60s.

Sony has been putting in some serious effort to ensure that their big screen adaptation of the 'Uncharted' video game is actually good. Over the years the project has attracted names like David O. Russell, Joshua Oppenheimer, and David Guggenheim, and Mark Wahlberg was attached to star at one point. The latest name to board the project is screenwriter Mark Boal, writer of 'Zero Dark Thirty' and 'The Hurt Locker,' and as a bonus, Boal is a fan of the video game on which the film is based.