Mamet, Ryan team for CBS terror drama
Source: Hollywood Reporter
Call it a look inside the Delta Force, David Mamet-style.
Mamet, the Pulitzer Prize-winning multihyphenate, has teamed with Shawn Ryan, creator/executive producer of FX's "The Shield," to develop a drama series for CBS and 20th Century Fox TV revolving around the personal and professional lives of members of an elite military anti-terrorism unit. CBS has given a put pilot commitment to the project after spirited bidding among several networks.
The untitled project was inspired by the 2002 book "Inside Delta Force: The Story of America's Elite Counterterrorist Unit" by Eric Haney, one of the founders of the Army's storied Delta Force division. Mamet and Ryan became friendly last year when Ryan persuaded Mamet to direct an episode of "Shield" after learning that Mamet was a fan of the Emmy-winning police drama.
Not too long after that, Mamet gave Ryan a copy of "Inside Delta Force" and asked him to help adapt it for television.
"And you just don't say no to Mr. Mamet," Ryan said, adding that he had long been a fan of Mamet's stage and film work, which includes 1992's "Glengarry Glen Ross," 1997's "Wag the Dog," 2000's "State and Main" and 2001's "Hannibal."
Mamet will write the pilot script and serve as an executive producer alongside Ryan, with Haney attached as a consultant. Ryan, who has an overall deal with 20th, said their goal is to paint a three-dimensional portrait of covert operatives who are generally portrayed by Hollywood as either gadget-toting high-tech whizzes or gung-ho superheroes a la Rambo.
"This project will deal in a very realistic way with the people on the ground who are in charge of keeping us safe in a very dangerous age," Ryan said. "But it will also deal with the dramas they face at home with their wives and girlfriends and with the commanders who give them orders. This is about the men who take the orders and do the dirty work and the baggage that they carry from doing that kind of work."
Before penning "Inside Delta Force," Haney had a long career in the military that ranged from service in Vietnam to such sensitive assignments as being part of the U.S. government's doomed 1980 effort to rescue American hostages held in Iran. The series would not refer specifically to Delta Force but to a fictional special forces unit housed at an American military base.
"There's a real veracity that Eric brought to his book that we hope to bring to the screen," Ryan said. "We want to show people who these men are. After reading this book, David and I both felt very comforted by the fact that these kinds of people are out there."
