Joe Berlinger, who is known for directing the Emmy Award-winning HBO series Paradise Lost, has been tapped to helm a film based on Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler's novel Fail-Safe, reports Variety. The novel, which already has an adaptation from director Sidney Lumet and a television film adaptation, explores a harrowing situation where a mechanical error jams the chain of command of the American military and contributes to likely nuclear warfare between the nation and the Soviet Union.
As per a press statement, Berlinger will utilise a particular documentary filmmaking style to "reimagine what the world would look like today had the events in the book really happened in 1967, with the total nuclear annihilation of New York and Moscow.” Fail-Safe "will combine high-stakes international drama and classic documentary-style storytelling to reinvent the Cold War political thriller for new audiences.”
The 1964 film from Lumet stars Henry Fonda in the role of a calm and sensible American president, alongside Walter Matthau's political theorist with a proclination for violence at the slightest provocation. On the other hand, the television film from 2000, based on the same subject, stars Richard Dreyfuss, Harvey Keitel, and George Clooney.
MFF and CO, a company from Los Angeles, will produce the film. The makers are yet to announce further details about the cast and crew.