Horse Soldiers (film)

Horse Soldiers is an upcoming American war drama film directed by Nicolai Fuglsig and written by Peter Craig and Ted Tally. It is based on a non-fiction book of same name by Doug Stanton, about the CIA agents and U.S. Special Forces sent to Afghanistan right after the September 11 attacks. The film stars Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Peña, Austin Stowell, Trevante Rhodes, and Rob Riggle.

Following the September 11 attacks, CIA agents and US Special Forces team are sent to Afghanistan, where they join forces with General Abdul Rashid Dostum to fight against Taliban.

On December 2, 2011, it was announced that producer Jerry Bruckheimer had taken out the script by Ted Tally and rewritten by Peter Craig with Nicolai Fuglsig attached to direct, which was bought by Walt Disney Pictures in 2009 for Bruckheimer, based on the Doug Stanton's non-fiction book Horse Soldiers. On March 29, 2016, Deadline reported that Bruckheimer had officially hired Fuglsig to make his feature film directorial debut, which would be co-financed and produced by Molly Smith, Trent Luckinbill, and Thad Luckinbill through Black Label Media, along with Bruckheimer's Jerry Bruckheimer Films. On September 30, 2016, Chris Hemsworth and Michael Shannon were cast in the film, and later on November 1, Michael Peña also joined the film. On November 3, 2016, athlete turned actor Trevante Rhodes was cast in the film. On November 14, 2016, Austin Stowell was cast in the film to play Staff Sergeant Fred Falls, an American soldier on the elite U.S. Special Forces team.Lionsgate would handle the film's distribution. On November 15, 2016, Austin Hébert was cast to play SFC Pat Essex, the intellectual and engineer of the team, and the same day it was reported that Ben O'Toole had also been cast for an unspecified role. On November 17, 2016, Variety reported that Navid Negahban was cast to play General Abdul Rashid Dostum in the film.Elsa Pataky was revealed to be staring in the film in December 2016, while on February 3, 2017, Deadline reported that Rob Riggle joined the film to play an Army Colonel, Max Bowers.