Donner Party movie coming from Luke Scott: The Hunger will focus on events from 1846.
The Donner Party movie will focus on a group of American pioneers who, on a long trip, had to resort to cannibalism to survive.
20th Century Fox will back The Hunger, a new film to be directed by Luke Scott. The project will be based on the planned book ‘Donner Party’ which is set around a group of American pioneers led by George Donner and James F. Reed who set out for California in a wagon train in May 1846. Many of the ‘party’ had to resort to cannibalism to survive the trip.
The project is written by Scott, son of the legendary Sir Ridley Scott who has acted as a second unit director on some his most recent epics, including The Martian and Exodus: Gods and Kings.
Here’s a little big to background on the real-life events that will inspire the book and film. This from WikiPedia.
The journey west usually took between four and six months, but the Donner Party was slowed by following a new route called Hastings Cutoff, which crossed Utah’s Wasatch Mountains and Great Salt Lake Desert. The rugged terrain and difficulties encountered while traveling along the Humboldt River in present-day Nevada resulted in the loss of many cattle and wagons and splits within the group.
By the beginning of November 1846, the settlers had reached the Sierra Nevada where they became trapped by an early, heavy snowfall near Truckee (now Donner) Lake, high in the mountains. Their food supplies ran extremely low and, in mid-December, some of the group set out on foot to obtain help. Rescuers from California attempted to reach the settlers, but the first relief party did not arrive until the middle of February 1847, almost four months after the wagon train became trapped. Of the 87 members of the party, 48 survived to reach California, many of them having eaten the dead for survival.
No idea on timescales, but Scott has his debut movie to push into cinemas first. Morgan stars the likes of Kate Mara, Anya Taylor-Joy, Toby Jones, Rose Leslie, Boyd Holbrook, Michelle Yeoh, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Paul Giamatti. That film will debut on September 2nd.
