The Boys in the Boat, a film adaptation of Daniel James Brown's 2013 mega-bestselling book about the University of Washington rowing team's victory in the 1936 Olympics, is scheduled to open in theaters this Christmas. The long-awaited adaptation is co-produced and directed by George Clooney from a screenplay by Mark L. Smith. The extensive cast includes Joel Edgerton as University of Washington rowing coach Al Ulbrickson and Callum Turner as struggling young rower Joe Rantz.
Daniel James Brown was inspired to write The Boys in the Boat after conversations with Joe Rantz in hospice care. Brown was drawn to the story of Rantz being abandoned by his family as an adolescent and the struggles of young people in general during the Depression. Much of The Boys in the Boat is devoted to getting to know the rowers before the race itself. Brown also explores how the Nazis created extravagant Olympic venues while hiding their mistreatment of Jews and other minorities.
Brown's other books include Under a Flaming Sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894 (2006), The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride (2009), and Facing the Mountain: A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II (2021). The Boys in the Boat also inspired a 2017 PBS documentary called The Boys of '36. It is available in paperback from Penguin Books. --Tobias Mutter
