By Peter Berg is bringing one of World War II’s most remarkable true stories to the big screen with The Mosquito Bowl, a new military drama starring Nicholas Galitzine, Bill Skarsgård, Ray Nicholson and Tom Francis. The film will arrive in U.S. theaters October 30 before streaming on Netflix November 25.
Based on Pulitzer Prize winner Buzz Bissinger’s New York Times bestseller The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II, the movie follows four of America’s top college football stars who walk away from fame after the attack on Pearl Harbor and enlist in the U.S. Marines.
Galitzine plays John McLaughry, with Skarsgård as Bob Baumann, Nicholson as Tony Butkovich and Francis as David Schreiner. As the four prepare for the brutal invasion of Okinawa, they take part in a legendary football game featuring some of the greatest college players of the era. For many of them, it would become the final game of their lives.
Berg directs and co-wrote the screenplay with Mark L. Smith, known for The Revenant and Twisters. He also appears as Gen. Buckner, while sports personality Pat McAfee plays a drill instructor.
The film is produced by Berg’s Film 44 alongside Brian Grazer and Alex Gayner, with Bissinger serving as an executive producer.
