By Ben Affleck has turned his sights on the World War II story, Ghost Army. He is stepping back behind the director’s chair for his newest endeavor. He’s also starring in it. This has been a winning formula for him with The Town and Argo, but not as much with Live By Night. He’s proved himself a good director and he could likely bring his average back up with this project.
Ghost Army involves “a little-known maneuver into Germany during World War II.” If you research this unit a little more, you’ll find out how fascinating this specific unit was and how they deceived the enemy troops through rather ingenious methods. They used fake radio transmissions, inflatable tanks, and sound effects recordings to draw the enemy away from the actual troops and make the enemy think the Allies had much larger troop numbers than they did.
It sounds like they took plays from Bugs Bunny’s playbook.
The more I look into this story, the more interesting it gets. I’m excited to see how this unique WWII story will be adapted. These 1,100 men were described as “a traveling road show of deception on the battlefields of Europe, with the German Army as their audience.” I’m picturing something like The Monuments Men, but with Affleck at the helm and Nic Pizzolatto, of True Detective fame, penning the screenplay it should have a darker edge to it and be way more engaging.
The screenplay will be based on the book, The Ghost Army of World War II.