Clint Eastwood Casting Real Life Soldiers for Filming “The 15:17 to Paris”

In what Variety magazine refers to as an “unconventional move,” director Clint Eastwood has chosen three soldiers who stopped a terrorist attack in Paris to play themselves in a film about that heroic incident.

The film, titled “The 15:17 to Paris,” will tell the story of three American heroes who put an end to an Islamic terrorist attack that occurred in 2015. It involved Islamic militant Ayoub el-Khazzani, who opened fire on a train carrying 554 passengers, then stabbed multiple people.

The three foils, two of which were off duty U.S. service members, subdued the suspect, and the attack resulted in only four injuries, none of which were fatal.

Those men, Airman First Class Spencer Stone, Anthony Sadler, and Specialist Alek Skarlatos, were awarded France’s highest award – the Legion of Honour – for their bravery.

Now they’re about to become movie stars too, thanks to Eastwood.

Via the Washington Post:

(Eastwood’s) next film follows a similar pattern. “The 15:17 to Paris” will present the true story of the three young California men, including a National Guardsman and a U.S. Airman, who stopped a suspected ISIS terrorist attack on a train traveling from Brussels to Paris in 2015. Only this time, in an rare Hollywood move, the heroes will play themselves in the movie.

Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone, the three men who thwarted the attack, will join a cast of seasoned actors including Jenna Fischer, Judy Greer and Ray Carasani, Variety reported.

That is amazing!

The film will focus mainly on the American heroes’ lives leading up to the attack, so they won’t have lead roles. But Variety reports that “the three will have good sized roles.”

Eastwood’s decision is reminiscent of the movie “Battleship,” in which real troops and veterans were used in the film.

Actress Brooklyn Decker explained “we used active and wounded military as well as veterans that have fought over the years” which gave the film a sense of “patriotism when you watch it.”

Battleship was critically panned, but any red-blooded American knows it is a stellar action film inspired by conservative values.

Production for Eastwood’s “The 15:17 to Paris” is already under way but as yet does not have a release date.

With news that the real American heroes will play a vital role in the film, we can’t wait to see it.

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Rusty Weiss has been covering politics for over 15 years. His writings have appeared in the Daily Caller, Fox... More about Rusty Weiss

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