Robert Downey Jr. and his wife Susan Downey are producing a movie about USS Indianapolis and the kid whose research helped set the historical record straight. Hunter Scott was 11 years old when, inspired by Quint’s story in Jaws, he started researching the 1945 naval disaster in which 900 men were stranded in shark-infested waters for four days; only 316 survived, and their captain Charles McVay was unjustly court martialed. McVay killed himself in 1968. Scott wound up testifying in front of Congress, which eventually led to the Navy amending McVay’s record in 2001. Robert Schenkkan, who wrote The Pacific, is writing the script, which means this could actually be as good and interesting as it sounds like it could be. How often does a movie get to weave together stories about military law, shark attacks, and ambitious children? [Heat Vision/THR]
