Japanese submarine slammed two torpedoes into her side, Chief. We was comin' back from the island of Tinian to Leyte. We'd just delivered the bomb. The Hiroshima bomb. Eleven hundred men went into the water. Vessel went down in 12 minutes. Didn't see the first shark for about a half-hour. Tiger. 13-footer. You know how you know that in the water, Chief? You can tell by lookin' from the dorsal to the tail. What we didn't know, was that our bomb mission was so secret, no distress signal had been sent. They didn't even list us overdue for a week. Very first light, Chief, sharks come cruisin' by, so we formed ourselves into tight groups. It was sorta like you see in the calendars, you know the infantry squares in the old calendars like the Battle of Waterloo and the idea was the shark come to the nearest man, that man he starts poundin' and hollerin' and sometimes that shark he go away... but sometimes he wouldn't go away. Sometimes that shark looks right at ya. Right into your eyes. And the thing about a shark is he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, he doesn't even seem to be livin'... 'til he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'. The ocean turns red, and despite all your poundin' and your hollerin' those sharks come in and... they rip you to pieces. You know by the end of that first dawn, lost a hundred men. I don't know how many sharks there were, maybe a thousand. I do know how many men, they averaged six an hour. Thursday mornin', Chief, I bumped into a friend of mine, Herbie Robinson from Cleveland. Baseball player. Boson's mate. I thought he was asleep. I reached over to wake him up. He bobbed up, down in the water, he was like a kinda top. Upended. Well, he'd been bitten in half below the waist. At noon on the fifth day, a Lockheed Ventura swung in low and he spotted us, a young pilot, lot younger than Mr. Hooper here, anyway he spotted us and a few hours later a big ol' fat PBY come down and started to pick us up. You know that was the time I was most frightened. Waitin' for my turn. I'll never put on a lifejacket again. So, eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945.
Ahoy, squirts! Quint here... Now, I've been fascinated by the story of the USS Indianapolis ever since Robert Shaw delivered perhaps one of the greatest monologues of all time in JAWS about what happened to those men. I remember watching a TV movie about it in my youth that was deadly dull. I've always wanted to see that explored on a big, cinematic level. Hell, I even had an April Fools Joke a few years back about Spielberg directing that movie as a prequel to JAWS... Funny thing was, that joke was more of a joke on me... Harry said he wanted an April Fools Joke from every one of his regular contributors, so I spent hours working on that one... casting it (Tom Hanks as the unfairly punished captain of the ship, Russell Crowe as the young Quint, etc)... I sent it in and of course... No one else had an April Fools Joke. Just me. And I took myself so seriously, too... Made me look like an ass, but hey... that's what April 1st is for, right?
As far as I can tell there are two Indianapolis projects in the works, one called THE GOOD SAILOR written by Brent Hanley (who wrote the solid atmospheric suspense flick FRAILTY) to be directed by JJ Abrams for Universal and one written by Richard Kelly (DONNIE DARKO writer/director) called OPTIMISTIC that, from what I hear, is close to being picked up by another big studio. THE GOOD SAILOR has been around for a while, I'm told, but it looks like it's finally moving. Here's some telling info:
hey guys,
So I've been browsing around for jobs and such on CraigsList.com, and, just because i'm curious, I often browse the TV and Movie section that deals with model and casting calls and other sorts of auditions. Anyways, there was one post that caught my eye (being such a huge Jaws and Quint fan it practically shot out at me). Here is the post on craigslist:
"The Good Sailor"
Looking for males 18- 45 all types
Deals with the sinking of the USS Indianapolis on July 30, 1945. When the ship was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine, 900 sailors were left stranded in shark-infested waters
Directed by J.J. Abrams "MI 3"
Now, I've been waiting for this project for many years, and it looks like things are finally being to pick up. I don't know what other news has been said about the project, but they're in pre-production.
-call me BLiNKs
Now, I really liked Hanley's previous flick and I love LOST from J.J. Abrams, but I've never really been able to get into his trademark TV series, ALIAS. I don't know anything about THE GOOD SAILOR besides who are working on the flick...
However, I did get my mitts on OPTIMISTIC and I can tell you it is hardcore. Richard Kelly cuts the script neatly in half... the first half building character and tension, the second half being some of the most harsh and graphic and disturbing shark attacks I've read.
No matter what, I'm happy that this story is finally looking to be told, be it Richard Kelly's version of the story or Abrams and Hanley's version or both versions released as competing projects. I'm curious to read Hanley's script, but until I do... I have to root for Richard Kelly just based on the epic hard R nature of OPTIMISTIC. I'm gonna keep a close eye on both projects and will be sure to fill you in on what I dig up. Until then... this is Quint saying "I'll never put on a life jacket again."
-Quint
email: quint@aintitcool.com
