Clint Eastwood’s next film about a terror attack on a train in Paris that was thwarted by three American men on vacation, will star the actual heroes of the 2015 incident.
Eastwood’s film, “The 15:17 to Paris” is based on the book the trio, Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos, and Spencer Stone co-wrote with Jeffrey E Stern. The three men will play themselves in the film despite having no acting experience.
Actors will play younger versions of the trio in the film, which is thought to focus on the three men’s friendship.
The men were awarded Legion d’honneur medals for their actions.
They also received a hero award from Eastwood himself at an awards ceremony last year.
Sadler, Skarlatos and Stone were among a number of passengers who overpowered a heavily armed man who had opened fire on the train.
Stone and Skarlatos were both off-duty servicemen, while Sadler was a student at California State University.
The man they apprehended was later named as Ayoub El-Khazzani, a Moroccan believed to have had links to radical Islam.
The film is the latest in a series of movies Eastwood has made based on real-life people in extraordinary situations.
His last film, Sully, told of pilot Chesley Sullenberger, who landed his damaged plane on the Hudson River in 2009.
If made, The 15:17 to Paris will not be the first fact-inspired film to feature non-actors in leading roles.
In 2012 release Act of Valour, real-life Navy Seals were shown embarking on a fictional covert mission.
The film will also star Jenna Fisher (“The Office”) and Judy Greer (“War for the Planet of the Apes”). The men, who have been friends since meeting as young boys in California, were hailed as heroes after the thwarted attack, as were two other passengers.
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Photo courtesy White House