Turner to the rescue on 'Blowback'

By MICHAEL FLEMING

Turner

Scribe Sheldon Turner has teamed with producer Benderspink for "Blowback," an action film that Turner will write about a rescue mission to free a kidnapped engineer in Iraq.

Turner and Benderspink optioned Megan Stack's recent Los Angeles Times article "Dispatches From Dharan," which told of the families of Aramco workers in Saudi Arabia after their lives were disrupted by Islamic terrorists who kidnap and murder foreign workers.

Turner will take the theme and place it in the "Green Zone" in Iraq, the place where American workers inhabit a fortress-like village surrounded by danger. When one of the engineers is abducted, special forces head out for revenge.

Pic will be produced by Chris Bender, JC Spink and Turner.

Turner said the short article sparked the idea to script a film that provides a catharsis for American audiences, without getting too heavily into politics.

"It's an insular world we haven't seen in a film, this little village compromised of many CIA operatives who are operating undercover as engineers," Turner said.

He will write the script and look for a studio deal. Turner has gone the independent route with his script "By Virtue Fall," on which he hopes to make his directing debut.

Benderspink recently wrapped "Monster-in-Law" for New Line with Jane Fonda and Jennifer Lopez, and is readying the Viggo Mortensen starrer "History of Violence" and "Red Eye" for DreamWorks.

Turner, whose remake scripts of "The Longest Yard" and "The Amityville Horror" are in production, is completing the script for "Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2."