Serum Run Movie

According to a Jan. 26 Reuters news release, Gavin Hood, the director of “X-Men Origins: Wolverine,” is negotiating to produce a movie based on Gay and Laney Salisbury’s book, The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a Race Against an Epidemic. The 2003 book is based on the 674-mile diphtheria serum run from Nenana to Nome in 1925, an event which is re-enacted biennially as the Norman Vaughn Serum Run.

The film project is set up at family-friendly producer Walden Media, which is currently in theaters with “Tooth Fairy.” Producers are eyeing a summer start for the project, which at one point was in development at Miramax under the title “Ice Bound.” According to the film news site FilmShaft, “Hood is looking to sign on and begin filming in the summer (when it will be warmer and they’ll recreate the harsh conditions with CGI and the magic of the movies…wimps).”

The deal marks the first project for Hood since “Wolverine,” which grossed $373 million worldwide last year. His other credits include the South African drama “Tsotsi,” which won the foreign-language Oscar in 2006, and the Iraq war-themed drama “Rendition.”

The Anchorage Daily News noted the news in their Jan. 26 issue, adding, “Whether it will be filmed in Alaska has yet to be specified.”

Tags: Baldy, diphtheria, Gavin Hood, Gay Salisbury, Ice Bound, Laney Salisbury, Nenana, Nome, Norman Vaughn Serum Run, Seppala, serum run, The Cruelest Miles, Togo, Walden Media