WWI 'Silent Night' Gets Playwright For Voice

[Tuesday, November 19th, 2002]
Universal Pictures has hired playwright Jon Robin Baitz to adapt "Silent Night," historian Stanley Weintraub's account of a WWI Christmas Eve truce, reports Variety.

It is about a temporary truce during World War I in the trenches in France when opposing sides played soccer and sang Christmas carols. Enraged officers heard about the truce and demanded the soldiers resume battle.

"At a time when we are approaching the status of the warrior in our culture once again, it's an interesting time to look at nationalism, patriotism and pacifism," Baitz said.

"The truce was the last gasp in a kind of chivalry that went back centuries, when soldiers went back to rules of engagement that were being broken down. What happened after is that exact moment in history that birthed a modern and very dangerous kind of warfare."

"Silent Night" is set up as strictly a producing project for the Weitz brothers, though Baitz is hopeful they might direct it as well.

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