20th Century Fox buys rights to movie about former Kent State student
ROTC cadets approach the finish line at The WhiteHot 5K race across the Kent State campus Saturday, April 26, 2014. The race honors former fallen ROTC soldier Ashley White, who was killed in Afghanistan in October of 2011. The money raised from the race goes into a scholarship fund bearing Ashley’s name that benefits ROTC Cadets at Kent.
After the blockbuster success of “American Sniper,” Hollywood is moving forward with another military movie.
The book “Ashley’s War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield” by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon tells the story of First Lieutenant Ashley White, a former Kent State student, who graduated and commissioned from the Kent State University Army ROTC in 2009.
White became a part of an elite group of woman soldiers whose unit supported the Green Berets and Army Rangers but was killed in combat in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan on Oct. 22, 2011. She was the first soldier in her unit, known as CST-2, to die in action and was given multiple awards posthumously for her service.
20th Century Fox bought the rights to the book that will be published in late April. The book tells the story of how White and the soldiers in her platoon bonded over adversity.
Reese Witherspoon signed on to play White in the military biopic early this month.
Though there are still many unknowns about the movie and the production, members of the Kent State University Army ROTC program are happy to see White’s story getting recognized.
“I think it’s wildly exciting.” Joe Paydock, a training officer, said. “Of course, with any story that is told through Hollywood, we hope it’s true expression of who Ashley really was.”
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