Michael Bay has been tapped to direct a movie centered around Operation Epic Fury at Universal Pictures, the studio confirmed Wednesday.
The untitled film tells the true story of a massive rescue effort to save two pilots downed during the April 2026 attacks in Iran. The film adapts a book from Mitchell Zuckoff coming in 2027 from Harper Collins.
Described as the largest rescue mission in U.S. history, the successful extraction took place in the Zagros Mountains of Iran after an American F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down during Operation Epic Fury mounted by the Trump administration.
This film will reteam Bay with Zuckoff, who penned the book “13 Hours” which became the basis for the director’s “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.” Bay will also reunite with Erwin Stoff and Scott Gardenhour, who served as producer and executive producer of “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” respectively. Gardenhour collaborated with Bay on a number of other films including “Armageddon” and “Pain & Gain.” Bay, Stoff and Gardenhour will all produce the untitled Operation Epic Fury movie.
The prolific blockbuster filmmaker Bay has not released a narrative feature since 2022’s “Ambulance,” a high-speed action flick set in a stolen ambulance on a police chase throughout the streets of Los Angeles. The film starred Jake Gyllenhaal, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Eiza González. Since then, Bay has only helmed the 2025 documentary “We Are Storror” about a British parkour group.
Bay is represented by CAA, Rich Cook at Range and Robert Offer, Stoff by CAA and Mahdi Salehi at Hanson Jacobson; Gardenhour by John Kulback at Loeb; Zuckoff by Richard Abate at 3 Arts.
Deadline first reported this news.
