Watch the first trailer of the ‘Deepwater Horizon’ film, starring Mark Wahlberg

Less than a month before the sixth anniversary of the largest offshore oil and gas disaster in the U.S. history – the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion – Lionsgate has released the first trailer of the “Deepwater Horizon” film, being made based on the 2010 catastrophe.

The film stars Academy Award nominee Mark Wahlberg, who plays Mike Williams the chief electronics official aboard the Deepwater Horizon. Other major roles are taken by Golden Globe nominee Kurt Russell, Academy Award nominee John Malkovich, and Academy Award nominee Kate Hudson.

Peter Berg, who previously directed “Lone Survivor” and “The Kingdom” is directing the screenplay written by Matthew Sand and Matthew Michael Carnahan.

The screenplay is based upon the 2010 New York Times article ‘Deepwater Horizon’s Final Hours’ by David Barstow, David Rohde and Stephanie Saul.

Summit Entertainment and Participant Media, in association with Imagenation Abu Dhabi, acquired the feature film rights to The New York Times article in March 2011, less than a year after the incident, which occurred on April 20, 2010 in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Louisiana.

The incident happened when an explosion hit the Transocean-owned drilling rig Deepwater Horizon, which was at the time working on the BP-operated Macondo well. Eleven workers died in the incident, the rig eventually sank, and the well continued to spew oil into the ocean for the following 87 days, spilling more than 3 million barrels.

The spill damaged and temporarily closed fisheries essential to the Gulf economy, oiled hundreds of miles of beaches, coastal wetlands and marshes and killed thousands of birds and other marine wildlife, among other economic and natural resource injuries.

Below is the description of the movie as presented by Summit Entertainment and Participant Media Presentation and a di Bonaventura Pictures:

“Deepwater Horizon” is based on the true events that occurred on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010, the story chronicles the courage of those who worked on the Deepwater Horizon and the extreme moments of bravery and survival in the face of what would become one of the biggest man-made disasters in world history.”

Lionsgate is set to release “Deepwater Horizon” on its Summit Entertainment label in North America on September 30, 2016.

Offshore Energy Today Staff, Trailer source: IMDB