The terrorist taking of a School in the Russian town of Beslan is a well remembered incident, and one which Brian Grazer has been convinced will make a compelling movie. Grazer is adapting an article written in Esquire about the seige and provides an emotive and compelling view of the hostage taking.

On the first day of school, 2004, a Chechen terrorist group siezed a school in the Russian town of Beslan, taking more than 1,100 hostages, mostly children.

The opening and highly charged paragraphs of the story by C.J. Chivers can be read over at Esquire, and the story of the movie The School comes from Coming Soon:

SEPTEMBER 1. AFTERNOON. THE GYM. Kazbek Misikov stared at the bomb hanging above his family. It was a simple device, a plastic bucket packed with explosive paste, nails, and small metal balls. It weighed perhaps eight pounds. The existence of this bomb had become a central focus of his life. If it exploded, Kazbek knew, it would blast shrapnel into the heads of his wife and two sons, and into him as well, killing them all.

I read this and it grabbed me within that first paragraph and drew me in throughout, I'm now dying to read the rest, and I can see exactly why Grazer was attracted to the story. I really do hope that this inspires a tale of Munich proportions, and is not weighted by Hollywood into some hero-hostage type film. From reading those opening paragraphs though you would think that there is only one way to go, and Grazer is more than capable of getting a strong and faithful team behind it.