Disney teams 3 for 'Tenn.'

Wallace to pen WWII pic

By CHRIS PETRIKIN

In a package that has "big" written all over it, Disney has brought together producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Michael Bay and screenwriter Randall Wallace for "Tennessee," a feature set around the time of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Insiders said Wallace ("Braveheart") will receive more than $2 million to pen the screenplay.

While there is no script at this time, with these players onboard, Disney is understood to have made a production commitment, essentially guaranteeing to make the film when the script is finalized.

The pic centers on two brothers caught up in the events that drew the United States into WWII. One of the sibs enlists with the U.S. Air Force and the other flies for the RAF; and both brothers get involved with the same woman.

Pic draws its title from the U.S.S. Tennessee battleship, which suffered severe damage during the first half-hour of Japanese bombing on December 7, 1941.

Buena Vista Motion Picture Group co-president Todd Garner is overseeing the project for the studio.

Two of Disney's marquee filmmakers, Bay and Bruckheimer have hit box office gold in the past with "Armageddon" and "The Rock" for Buena Vista and "Bad Boys" for Columbia, all of which Bay directed and Bruckheimer produced.

Wallace is well-schooled in period epics, having scripted the best-pic Oscar winner "Braveheart" for Paramount/Fox and wrote, produced and directed "The Man in the Iron Mask" for MGM. The Tennessee native, who is repped by ICM, penned the WWII epic "With Wings As Eagles," which he is attached to direct for Par.