News > Spike Lee to Produce 'Now the Hell Will Start'

Spike Lee has picked up the rights to WWII manhunt story by Brendan Koerner, Now the Hell will Start.  Variety is reporting that Lee will produce it under his flagship  40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks.

Story recounts the story of an African-American soldier who murdered his lieutenant and then fled into the Burmese jungle.

Book uses the soldier's story to explore how the U.S. military considered African-Americans unfit for combat and shipped thousands to India in 1944 to build the Ledo Road, a 500-mile project that extended through mountains into China.

Penguin Press published the book last year. It's the first from Koerner, a contributing editor for Wired magazine and columnist for the New York Times and Slate magazine.