Baby Driver star Ansel Elgort has found his next project as the future leader of the United States.
Elgort will portray a young John F. Kennedy in Mayday 109, depicting the president’s time as a Navy captain in World War II. Per Deadline, the film will be a co-production Thunder Road Pictures and FlyynPictureCo. with Elgort producing as well.
Mayday 109 will tell JFK’s “extraordinary real-life nautical adventures as the captain of a PT boat that was attacked and sunk by a convoy of Japanese destroyers. This led to the young Kennedy’s involvement in one of the most dramatic rescues in Naval history.”
“We could not be more excited about Ansel coming aboard,” said Thunder Road’s Basil Iwanyk. “Not only is he a tremendous actor, he embodies the charisma, athleticism and looks of a young JFK. We love that this is not a biopic nor a film about politics. This is simply a riveting and unbelievable tale that very few people know – about a young man who was a hero long before becoming the iconic 35th President of the United States. With Ansel, we’ve found our perfect JFK.”
No director is attached yet, but the search is underway for one. The script comes from Samuel Franco and Evan Kilgore, who have just come off writing Kenneth Branagh’s Keeper of The Diary, a film about the publishing of Anne Frank’s diary post-World War II.
Originally published June 28, 2017. Updated April 16, 2018.
