Nat Geo On Board Book-Based Miniseries The Long Road Home

WASHINGTON, D.C.: National Geographic Channel (NGC) has teamed up with Mike Medavoy and Jason Clark (Ways and Means Productions) to develop a scripted miniseries inspired by The Long Road Home, a best-selling book penned by ABC News' chief correspondent Martha Raddatz.

The Long Road Home will center on the events of "Black Sunday," when a newly arrived platoon from the First Cavalry Division in Fort Hood, Texas, was ambushed in Baghdad during the spring of 2004. The global miniseries will be exec produced by Medavoy, Clark, Benjamin Anderson and Edward McGurn. Screenwriter Mikko Alanne (The 33) has signed on to adapt the story for television.

Courteney Monroe, the CEO of NGC, said: "We are working with masterful story crafters—Mike Medavoy, who has produced some of the most iconic military features ever made, Jason Clark and Mikko Alanne—to tell a remarkable story about courage. It is a universal and timeless story about warriors and families, of brotherhood, hope, loyalty and survival. It is rooted in authenticity that is core to National Geographic brand and we hope to tell a gripping, true story of survival."

Medavoy noted: "I'm thrilled to be in business with National Geographic, who bring quality programming to worldwide audiences. We aspire to take viewers both into the terrifying, chaotic realm of soldiers at war, as we did in Platoon, but also we will take you into the lives of their families back in Texas, as they learn of the battle. We continue our relationship with critically acclaimed Mikko Alanne and know that along with National Geographic Channel and Ways and Means Productions, we'll tell a story that resonates in today's headlines."

Clark added: "The Long Road Home is a story about ordinary people trapped by circumstances outside their control. The battle they fight is not for politics or ideas, but for each other, for their families, simply to live and to return. But not all will. Not even those who do come home alive. Because this is also a story about our veterans, and what happens to them after the battle is over."