EXCLUSIVE: UK filmmaker Ron Scalpello will direct Deployed: Colombia, the first in a planned series of adaptations of Andy McNab’s Liam Scott novels.
The film will follow Scott, a young British Army soldier deployed to Colombia who becomes immersed in a dangerous and morally complex conflict alongside British Special Forces and international operatives fighting the war on drugs.
Debbie Mason is producing for the UK’s MasonMediaMatrix, which holds the rights to the Scott novel series. Mother’s Pride producer Circus Studios has boarded Deployed: Colombia as executive producer, and will handle international sales.
McNab – real name Steven Billy Mitchell – is a former Special Air Service soldier turned novelist, who has sold over 30 million books in more than 20 countries worldwide.
“Liam Scott isn’t a superhero. He is a young man trying to put his life back together, and the Army is the only thing that looks like a way out,” said McNab. “What I care about is getting the detail right, not just the kit and the tactics, but the pressure, the fear, the split-second decisions, and the cost when it all goes wrong. Ron Scalpello’s got the grit and the edge to put it on screen the way it should be, honest and with real consequences.”
“Andy’s work resonates with so many people because he speaks from lived experience,” said Scalpello. “Often serving the geopolitical ambitions of the State, Andy has always shone a light on the human cost of war and the sacrifice of young men and women recruited mostly from troubled backgrounds.”
“Liam Scott is totally relatable to today’s young audience, who have tired of much older action heroes,” said Mason.
“These films will bring an insider’s view of the most highly trained special forces unit to a global audience,” said Circus Studios managing director James Scott.
Scalpello has previously made genre films including Offender, Pressure, My Name Is Lenny and The Corrupted.
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