Saving Washington Film Rights Optioned by Producer of HBO's Big Little Lies

NEW YORK, Feb. 21, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Saving Washington, Chris Formant's riveting novel about the forgotten heroes who saved General George Washington and the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, has been optioned by Fearless Films/Gregg Fienberg, the Emmy Award-winning producer of Big Little Lies, as well as the Emmy Award-nominated Deadwood and True Blood, and Golden Globe-winning Twin Peaks.

Hidden in the pages of history, Formant's book reminds us of the sacrifices made for our country. "Saving Washington is the extraordinary story of America's Spartans, the Maryland 400, a group of young men from Maryland who stood up to an overwhelming British Army at the Battle of Brooklyn, buying time for Washington and the Continental Army to escape," Fienberg said. "If not for their sacrifice, the American Revolution would have been over that day."

According to author Chris Formant, the Battle of Brooklyn—the Revolutionary War's first and fiercest conflict—was once called, "An hour more precious to American Liberty than any other in history," and yet has been forgotten. "My fascination with this lost piece of history all started a few years ago. I accidentally came across a one-paragraph announcement in the Baltimore Sun describing a wreath laying ceremony near Prospect Park in Brooklyn to honor the heroism of a small Maryland regiment on August 27, 1776, and I wondered—as a student of history, why don't I know anything about this?" The desire to understand what would motivate an untested band of young soldiers to lay down their lives for a new nation fueled the passion that became Saving Washington.

"I'm excited that Gregg Fienberg has chosen this story of America's most forgotten heroes to bring to light on film and finally give the Maryland 400 the spotlight they deserve," Formant said. 

Formant's research led him to the Army War College where he brought decorated military leaders to tears describing that somewhere beneath the bustling streets of Brooklyn lie the remains of America's forgotten citizen-soldiers whose heroic sacrifice galvanized the nation on the eve of its birth.

With Saving Washington, Formant crafted a work of historical fiction that transports the reader back to that moment in 1776 and the escalating tension with the British. Seen through the eyes of two teenagers, one white and one black, Formant presents the colliding forces of personal freedom, taxation, American exceptionalism and Old Testament religion. It is a story that reminds us of the extraordinary devotion that founded our new country.

SOURCE Chris Formant