Stephen Lang, Lightstorm Film About Military Heroes ‘Beyond Glory’ Acquired By Gravitas

EXCLUSIVE: Gravitas Ventures has just acquired Beyond Glory, a feature film that tells the true stories of eight Medal of Honor heroes as performed by acclaimed actor Stephen Lang. This is a film that James Cameron, Jon Landau, and Lightstorm Entertainment executive produced and which Gary Sinise adds his voice to. The film will be released on all platforms this fall.

“Stephen Lang’s inspiring tour de force of writing and acting brings to life a handful of this nation’s greatest real heroes, who now, with this film, pass firmly into legend,” said Cameron. The film is a big-screen presentation of Lang’s one-man shows which is, itself, an adaptation of Larry Smith’s nonfiction book, also titled Beyond Glory.

Beyond-Glory-1
Beyond-Glory-1

The Eight veterans he portrays are from World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Among them are Vice Admiral James Bond Stockdale, the highest-ranking naval officer tortured in the “Hanoi Hilton” prison and was later Ross Perot’s running mate and 2nd Lt. Daniel K. Inouye, who lost a limb in combat in World War II and then became a U.S. Senator from Hawaii from 1963 to 2012.

Other heroes whose stories are told by Lang are Navyman John William Finn who despite being wounded, manned a machine gun without cover during the attack at Pearl Harbor (where this writer’s uncle was injured); Army medic Clarence Eugene Sasser who ran through gunfire to save fallen men during a firestorm in Dinh Tuong Province in Vietnam; Army officer Lewis Millett, Sr. who not only drove a burning truck filled with ammunition away from others before it exploded in WWII but also led a bayonet fight during the Korean War and also served in Vietnam; Army sergeant Nicky Daniel Bacon who was a sharecroppers son from Arkansas whose selfless actions in a firefight in Tam Ky Vietnam earned him the military’s highest honor; Marine Hector Albert Cafferata, Jr. who, after single-handedly holding off an entire regime during the Korean War, picked up a hand grenade and hurled it away from other wounded Marines only to have part of his finger blown off and sustaining serious injuries to his hand and arm; and finally Army officer Vernon Joseph Baker who, in WWII, crawled through machine gunfire to kill Nazis.

The film shows Lang on stages from New York’s famed Flea Theater to battleships and operating bases with meticulously crafted CGI environments. It has been playing in festivals nationwide and recently just took the Special Jury Prize for Acting from the Phoenix Film Festival. The film was directed and edited the piece by Larry Brand.

“With Gravitas’ release of the film, movie audiences will get to experience Stephen Lang’s portrayal of men in battle as if seeing it live on the stage,” said director Brand.

CAA negotiated the deal on behalf of the filmmakers.

Related stories

Deadline Disruptors: Why Peter Jackson Sees Screening Room As Cinema's Savior That Can Put $8B Into Film Ecosystem

Vegas Winners, Losers, Oscar Contenders, And How CinemaCon Got Taken Over By The 'Toons - The Week That Was

James Cameron Expands 'Avatar' Sequels To Four, Slams Screening Room & Gets Cheers From Exhibs- CinemaCon

Get more from Deadline.com: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter