Director Michael Bay plans to get right into the middle of the 2016 elections with the release of 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, which hits theaters on January 15th, 2 1/2 weeks before the Iowa Caucus.
The movie is based on Mitchell Zuckoff's book Thirteen Hours: A Firsthand Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi, a moment-by-moment account beloved by Washington types who believe the CIA order the security officers to "stand down" during the crisis.
Bay, who gets a lot of flak from critics for action pictures like Transformers: Age of Extinction and Pain & Gain, isn't known for taking on highly-charged political topics in his movies but Paramount has decided to release 13 Hours on the same January weekend that's proved so successful for military-themed movies like Zero Dark Thirty, Lone Survivor and American Sniper.
The movie details the story of the private contractors hired to protect State Department personnel during the September 11, 2012 attacks on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.
Bay gets into the political thriller game with Jim and Roy from The Office (John Krasinski and David Denman) in lead roles. The film also stars Max Martini (Saving Private Ryan, Captain Phillips) Pablo Schreiber (The Wire, Orange is the New Black), Toby Stephens (Black Sails, Die Another Day) and James Badge Dale (The Pacific).
Check out the trailer below and let us know if you plan to see 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi.