BP oil rig disaster apparently worth its own feature film

Most of us will remember the main issue of the BP oil spill disaster of last year being the zillion gallons of oil that poured into the ocean, drowning both sea life and the livelihoods of those that lived along the coast.

But the actual tragic event that started it all is something that was all but overlooked in the wake of the spill, as the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon that caused the leak cost 11 workers their lives, and apparently was harrowing enough to attract interesting for a Titanic-ish feature film.

The script is being written by NINJA ASSASSIN scribe Matthew Sand, who is adapting a New York Times article called “Deepwater Horizon’s Final Hour” that chronicles the mayhem onboard the rig.

Presumably this will not be a documentary, and more of an action picture judging by the content of the article which begins like this:

The worst of the explosions gutted the Deepwater Horizon stem to stern. Crew members were cut down by shrapnel, hurled across rooms and buried under smoking wreckage. Some were swallowed by fireballs that raced through the oil rig’s shattered interior. Dazed and battered survivors, half-naked and dripping in highly combustible gas, crawled inch by inch in pitch darkness, willing themselves to the lifeboat deck. It was no better there.

That same explosion had ignited a firestorm that enveloped the rig’s derrick. Searing heat baked the lifeboat deck. Crew members, certain they were about to be cooked alive, scrambled into enclosed lifeboats for shelter, only to find them like smoke-filled ovens.

Men admired for their toughness wept. Several said their prayers and jumped into the oily seas 60 feet below. An overwhelmed young crew member, Andrea Fleytas, finally screamed what so many were thinking: “We’re going to die!”

Probably no room for a Jack and Rose romance onboard huh? Read the full article over at the New York Times.