Report: Roseburg hero to be featured in Clint Eastwood movie

Hollywood, Cal.- An entertainment news agency is reporting a Roseburg man honored around the world for helping stop a 2015 terrorist attack in France will play himself in a movie about the event.

According to Variety, Alek Skarlatos and two of his friends will play themselves in the upcoming Clint Eastwood movie “The 15:17 to Paris”, based on their experiences in France.

Skarlatos and his friends were on a train to Paris when a man started shooting an automatic weapon. They tackled the man after he stepped into their train car and stopped to reload his weapon.

“I turned around and saw he had what looked to be an AK, and it looked like it was jammed or it wasn’t working and he was trying to charge the weapon,” said Spencer Stone, one of the heroes. “Alek just hit me on the shoulder and said, ‘Let’s go.'”

Stone tackled the shooter and wrestled him to the ground, while Skarlatos grabbed the gun and hit the suspect with it. The friends handed the man over to authorities at the next train station.

While the men were hailed as heroes and honored by world leaders, at the time Skarlatos said he was just doing what came naturally.

“I feel our training mostly kicked in after the assailant was already subdued, frankly, when it came to medical care and things like that and providing security, making sure there wasn’t another shooter, but in the beginning, it was mostly just gut instinct.”

Variety reports Clint Eastwood will now bring the heroic incident to the big screen. According to the report, while the movie will show what happened, it will largely focus on the friendship among the three men.

A release date for “the 15:17 to Paris” hasn’t been announced.

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