Feature film about the Battle of New Orleans back on track

"The Battle of New Orleans," a long-stalled historical epic recounting events leading up to and during the historic 1815 clash, is again moving forward. "Kidnap" producer Joey Tufaro and his locally based Gold Star Films have been bought on board to co-produce the film with project founders Fred and Ken Atchity. Their hope is to bring the film before cameras in 2018 and release it into theaters by the end of 2019.

The Atchity brothers first announced their plans for the film -- which they envisioned in the vein of 2000's "The Patriot" and 1995's "Braveheart" -- in January 2015, the battle's bicentennial year. Their ambitious outlook called for filming to begin in 2015 with a release date as early as 2016. Both dates came and went, however, with little movement on the project.

Now, though, with Tufaro and his Gold Star Films partner Todd Trosclair on board -- both fresh off the success of the release in July of "Kidnap," an action-thriller starring Halle Berry -- the project has been given new life. According to Tufaro, negotiations are underway to attract big-name actors to the project, and possibly a high-profile actor-director, although he said it's too early in the process to reveal the names being sought.

"The Battle of New Orleans" will be filmed in the New Orleans area and will be based on author Ron Drez's nonfiction book "The War of 1812: Conflict and Deception," which recounts the against-all-odds story behind the battle. "What most people don't realize about the Battle of New Orleans is how pivotal it actually was in deciding the fate of our young nation," Tufaro said.

Fought as part of the War of 1812 -- which has been characterized as the American Revolution 2.0 -- the Battle of New Orleans saw Gen. Andrew Jackson commanding a ragtag force cobbled together of several factions, from American Indians and Cajun farmers to free men of color and the pirate Jean Lafitte's band of privateers, in an effort to defend the city against the British. The two sides met just downriver from the French Quarter on Jan. 8, 1815, at Chalmette Battlefield. By the time the dust had settled, the British had suffered an estimated 2,600 casualties, compared to about a dozen for the American side, making for a decisive American victory.

While the battle was famously fought after the Treaty of Ghent had been signed to end the war, word of the treaty hadn't yet gotten to the battlefield. Consequently, generations of schoolchildren were taught the battle was unnecessary. But there are those -- including Drez -- who speculate that, had the British won the war and taken New Orleans, the treaty might have been immediately nullified by the British, who would have then taken control of the city -- and thus the Mississippi River.

"Together, (Jackson's forces) defeated the British armada, which enabled The Treaty of Ghent to be ratified by Congress, thus ensuring the continuing independence of the United States of America," Tufaro said.

The resumption of progress on the Atchity brothers' "Battle of New Orleans" project is particularly timely. First, since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has repeatedly cited Jackson as one of his political idols. A portrait of Jackson hangs in Trump's Oval Office, and the president visited Jackson's tomb in Nashville, Tenn., in March.

It also, however, comes at a time in which Jackson's legacy -- including his championing of the brutal Indian Removal Act as president -- has drawn renewed scrutiny. Amid recent calls for removal of Confederate monuments around the country, some have called for Jackson's iconic statue in New Orleans to be removed and his name scrubbed from the public square dedicated in his honor. (For the record, Jackson was never a part of the Confederacy; he died 15 years before the Civil War began.)

Tafaro, however, shrugged off any potential for controversy, pointing out that -- irrespective of Jackson's legacy in other areas -- the battle marked a pivotal point not just in New Orleans' history but in American history.

"Andrew Jackson, like most well-known historical figures, had a polarizing personality and many of his policies would be controversial given today's political climate," Tufaro said Monday (Aug. 21). "Our film concentrates on the tremendous sacrifices he and his men made to shape our country's landscape for generations of Americans to come."

"The Battle of New Orleans" won't be the first film to focus on Jackson, Lafitte and the Battle of New Orleans. In 1938, Cecil B. DeMille directed "The Buccaneer," starring Fredric March as Lafitte and Hugh Sothern as Jackson. Two decades later, actor Anthony Quinn directed a 1958 remake, with Charlton Heston playing Jackson and Yul Brynner as Lafitte.

The script for a competing "Battle of New Orleans" project, penned by Daniel Kunka, has also been circulating in Hollywood in recent years, even landing in 2015 on the Black List, an annual ranking of the most liked unproduced screenplays in Hollywood.

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Battle of New Orleans script lands on Black List, as one of Hollywood's top unproduced screenplays

Call it the battle of the "Battle of New Orleans" movies. Another screenplay based on the legendary 1815 skirmish that played out at Chalmette battlefield -- and in which Andrew Jackson's ragtag band of U.S. Army regulars, militia, free people of color, American Indians and pirates routed the more numerous British forces -- is turning heads in Hollywood.

The script for "The Battle of New Orleans," penned by screenwriter Dan Kunka -- whose "12 Rounds" was shot in New Orleans in 2008 --  landed this week on the 2015 Black List, an annual accounting of the most liked unproduced screenplays in Hollywood. Kunka's script earned 10 votes, tying it for 20th most on this year's list, which is based on a survey of more than 250 studio and production company executives.

It is unrelated to the independently produced "Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans," an action drama announced in January by filmmaking siblings Fred and Ken Atchity. Producers of that project, based on a book by historian Ron Drez, hope to begin production by June, according to Ken Atchity.

 Kunka's 119-page "Battle of New Orleans" script, based on the book "Patriotic Fire" by "Forrest Gump" author Winston Groom, opens with the sacking of the White House by the British in August 1814. Continuing through to the end of the titular battle in January 1815, it focuses on the unlikely alliance between U.S. Gen. Andrew Jackson and the pirate Jean Lafitte, a partnership seen as key to the British defeat.

The Battle of New Orleans is something of a historical curiosity, fought as it was after the Treaty of Ghent had been signed in December 1814 to end the war. Word of the signing of that treaty, however, never got to British Gen. Edward Packenham, who had been dispatched with his army to take the strategic city of New Orleans; or to Jackson, tasked with defending the city. And so, on Jan. 8, 1815, they met on the battlefield, the British were defeated and New Orleans stayed in American hands.

Because it was fought after the war was technically over, the battle over the years has become considered by many to be a largely needless one. There are those who speculate, however, that, had the British won the war and taken New Orleans, the treaty might have been immediately nullified by the British.

The story was previously told on film in Cecil B. DeMille's heavily romanticized 1938 epic "The Buccaneer," which starred Fredric March as Lafitte and Hugh Sothern as Jackson. "The Buccaneer" was remade in 1958, directed by Anthony Quinn and starring Charlton Heston as Jackson and Yul Brenner as Lafitte.

Read more at NOLA.com

Maryland Shines Spotlight on War of 1812

As we prepare Andrew Jackson—Battle for New Orleans the news begins to serve the project and will refresh American memory about the controversial War of 1812 that ended definitively with Jackson’s defeat of the British at New Orleans.

BALTIMORE—Maryland officials are on a campaign to elevate the profile of the War of 1812, a historically unpopular conflict that ended in a draw with Britain and has long been overshadowed by the Revolutionary and Civil wars.

The state is planning a weeklong festival next month to mark the 200th anniversary of the city's defense in 1814, which inspired Francis Scott Key to pen the poem that later became the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner," the national anthem.

State officials also have awarded $5.5 million in grants for celebrations, educational programs and research, hoping to generate a lasting patriotic buzz about Maryland's starring role in a war that largely has been written off as a historical footnote.

"This is not just about having a party and shutting it down for another hundred years," said Bill Pencek, executive director of Maryland's War of 1812 Bicentennial Commission. He said the state is counting on an enduring tourism boost.

If it is recalled at all, the War of 1812, which ended in 1815, is most often remembered for the British burning of Washington and the White House. But some of the lowest and highest points in the conflict actually occurred in nearby Maryland.

The error-filled collapse of American troops in Bladensburg, Md., in August 1814 gave the British easy entrée to the nation's capital. By contrast, the successful defense of Baltimore amid the British bombardment at Fort McHenry helped fuel American patriotism when an oversized American flag stood tall following the siege.

Commemorative coins are displayed for sale at the Fort McHenry gift shop. Melissa Golden for The Wall Street Journal

The war was folly, said Don Hickey, a history professor at Wayne State College in Nebraska who has written books on the subject. Though the U.S. declared war over legitimate British interference with American trade and the seizure of its sailors, it made no sense militarily, he said.

Still, the conflict "helped forge an American identity," Mr. Hickey said, and gave rise to such lasting symbols as Uncle Sam. It also helped propel the political careers of prominent U.S. figures, including future President Andrew Jackson, who defeated a British force near New Orleans in 1815, unaware that the two countries had signed a truce weeks earlier.

The Maryland grants, funded by corporate sponsorships and commemorative coin sales, have been matched by $14 million in public and private contributions. They have financed an IMAX film, improvements to the sleepy waterfront in southern Maryland where British forces landed, the restoration of an insect-ravaged cavalry jacket, and a camera network called KeyCam that gives people the same view of Fort McHenry that Mr. Key saw.

Much of the funding is focused along The Star-Spangled Banner National Historic Trail, a 560-mile route tracing the paths of British and American forces in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

On Maryland's Eastern Shore this Sunday, a $93,000 grant is subsidizing the re-enactment of the Battle of Caulk's Field on one of the war's most pristine battlefields.

There, a local militia repelled marauding British troops without help from American soldiers. Among the 14 British killed was Sir Peter Parker, a cousin of the poet Lord Byron, who wrote an ode in his relative's honor.

Even many locals don't know that history, said Bernadette Bowman, director of the Kent County Office of Tourism Development. "This is the forgotten war. We weren't taught this," she said.


Reposted from the Wall Street Journal

Write to Scott Calvert at scott.calvert@wsj.com