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Hollywood on the Potomac interviewed Laura Hillenbrand at the DC screening of Seabiscuit which went on to be nominated for an Academy Award. The Fairfax, Virginia born author’s second book, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (2010), is a biography of World War II hero Louis Zamperini turned film by producer/director Angelina Jolie and is now in theaters and also getting Oscar buzz.
Louis Zamperini with Laura Hillenbrand Photo courtesy of Hillenbrand
When Zamperini died in July at the age of 97, Hillenbrand wrote this on her Facebook Page:
“It is with tears and the heaviest heart that I share the news of the passing of Louie Zamperini. He died peacefully in his sleep last night, surrounded by his loved ones. He lived ninety-seven beautiful, extraordinary years.
Louie was my beloved friend, my surrogate grandfather, a man who threw laughter and light across my dark days, my hero, my steadying hand. To know him, to be in the presence of his radiant optimism, his sparkling wit, and the love in which he lavished everyone around him, was a privilege and a pleasure and an indescribable joy. In a life of almost unimaginable drama, he experienced supreme triumphs, but also brutal hardship, incomprehensible suffering, and the cruelty of his fellow man. He was an airman, a plane crash victim, a castaway, he was attacked by sharks and strafed by his enemy, he was a POW and a slave, he struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder. But Louie greeted every challenge of his long journey with singular resilience, determination and ingenuity, with a ferocious will to survive and prevail, and with hope that knew no master. His life would not be a sad story because he would not allow it to be. His story is a lesson in the potential that lies within all of us to summon strength amid suffering, love in the face of cruelty, joy from sorrow. Of the myriad gifts he has left us, the greatest is the lesson of forgiveness.”
On set with Angelina Jolie
“On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.” Hillenbrand Books
“It will be hard to make a film worthy of this great man,” Jolie told The Hollywood Reporter in 2013. “I am deeply honored to have the chance and will do all I can to bring Louie’s inspiring story to life.”
“Unbroken” official trailer:
Seabiscuit official trailer:
