What If...? - Focus / Paramount (Cary Joji Fukunaga's No Blood, No Guts, No Glory)

In May 2011, it was announced that Cary Joji Fukunaga would be directing a Civil War-era heist film for Focus Features entitled No Blood, No Guts, No Glory, which was previously set up at Paramount Pictures. The screenplay by Fukunaga and Chase Palmer, which appeared on the annual Black List survey in 2009, was based on the real-life Great Locomotive Chase, a military raid that occurred on April 12, 1862 in northern Georgia. Volunteers from the Union Army, led by civilian scout James J. Andrews, commandeered a train, the General, and took it northward toward Chattanooga, Tennessee, doing as much damage as possible to the vital Western and Atlantic Railroad line from Atlanta to Chattanooga as they went. They were pursued by Confederate forces at first on foot, and later on a succession of locomotives, including The Texas, for 87 miles. Because the Union men had cut the telegraph wires, the Confederates could not send warnings ahead to forces along the railway. Confederates eventually captured the raiders and quickly executed some as spies, including Andrews, while some others were able to flee. The surviving raiders were the first to be awarded the newly created Medal of Honor by the U.S. Congress for their actions. As a civilian, though, Andrews was not eligible. Fukunaga himself described the project, to have been produced by Kevin Misher, as the following in an interview: "It is a version of Buster Keaton's The General, which was based on a real train heist, but told from the Yankee side." Ultimately though, nothing ever came of the project. Follow me and ponder the question, "What if...?"
Music: "1800's Luxury Train Coach" - Alluring Ambience

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Distributed By
Paramount Pictures Corp
(International)
Universal Pictures Distribution
(USA/Canada)