It appears Bill O’Reilly isn’t the only TV newser seeing his books adapted into TV programs. ABC News’ Martha Raddatz got the greenlight for the adaptation of her New York Times bestseller into a scripted miniseries for National Geographic Channel.
The Long Road Home recounts the fight for survival during the Iraq War when the First Cavalry Division from Fort Hood, Texas, was ambushed on April 4, 2004, in Sadr City, Baghdad — a day known as Black Sunday.
Raddatz, co-anchor of This Week and ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent, says she can’t wait for production to begin. “I am thrilled that this powerful story, which I first told on ABC’s Nightline more than a decade ago, will be in the hands of Nat Geo Channel and the talented team now working on it,” she told TVNewser. “They care about the soldiers and families as much as I do. There is no story from the battlefield or the home front that has had a more profound effect on me as a journalist. I can’t wait to share that story with millions of NatGeo viewers.”
The 8-hour series will go back and forth between the soldiers on the ground in Iraq and their home base at Fort Hood, where families awaited updates for 48 hours. The incident took place almost a year after Pres. George W. Bush made his notorious Mission Accomplished speech, which changed the military’s view of Iraq from a peacekeeping mission to a fight against Iraqi insurgents.
Production will begin early next year for a premiere in late 2017.