Yep, Hollywood Might Be Taking This On

It's no secret that over the past few weeks, the world has found itself mesmerized, baffled, and saddened by the case of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. Now we can find ourselves horrified, jaded, and, yes, preemptively saddened by the prospect of a Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 movie.

It should be noted here that, as of this post, there are no solid plans and no public pitches for a film focusing on the events and/or people of MF370. But, according to one Hollywood producer and general knowledge of the headline-grabbing way that Hollywood works, it seems essentially inevitable. As Red Eye executive producer JC Spink told The Hollywood Reporter:

It's a shocking tragedy, but even so, I guarantee there are 50 different people working on 50 different projects that are either inspired by it or based directly on it right now.[...] Clearly something more happened on that flight than we'll ever know. And that's a great jumping-off point.

It's already come up multiple times in the stories surrounding the incident how weirdly fiction-ready the story is — in fact, it's come up so many times that multiple people have been called out in the vein of, "Hey, maybe focus on the real-world tragedy and stop comparing this thing to Lost."

This kind of development pattern is not rare. The Boston Marathon bombings have already been mined for feature potential; the rights to a book about the bombing was optioned by The Fighter screenwriters this past summer. There have also, of course, been several films about 9/11, some of which serve as examples that tragic events can be treated with sensitivity in portrayals.

What really sets off the sensitivity sensors here is how quick it all is — it's entirely possible not all of the families, who are still searching for answers, have even held memorial services yet. They haven't had time to grieve, and neither has the world. Ripped-from-headlines is common for Law & Order shows and feature films alike, but sometimes time is a necessary element.

This is, of course, where the fact that none of these potential Malaysia Airlines movies actually exist yet comes in handy: These movies aren't even official ideas yet, and the path from the idea to the theater is often a very long one. Some distance and perspective would be nice before we hit that last step, but until that first official announcement hits it's not like we've got any actual facts at which to aim our anger.