While it may seem pretty obvious that real life can be the best inspiration for a good movie, it’s not very often that you can count on a recent news headline to provide both a compelling story and a happy ending. I guess that’s why the hostage rescue that took place in Colombia last week instantly became such a hot property around Hollywood. The Colombian military infiltrated a guerrilla rebel group that was holding 15 hostages and eventually tricked them into transferring the hostages to a camp where an ambush was waiting. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Vertigo Entertainment (The Strangers, The Eye) have now landed the rights to the big screen adaptation.

Here’s what I want to know… who owns the rights to a news story exactly? I mean, can’t anyone just read some articles on the general events that took place and write a screenplay about it? In this case, Colombian TV network RCN are the ones teaming up with Vertigo to do the movie, so I guess they were the ones with the rights. Colombian director Simon Brand, who is responsible for the highest-grossing Colombian movie ever (Paradise Travel), will be helming the flick. I agree it sounds cool, but I always think in situations like this that a feature-length documentary could be even better, especially if they have any footage of the operation itself (which it seems they do). Either way, I’m guessing this movie will come out and then a couple years later we’ll get the American remake by Tony Scott. Definitely looking forward to that.

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