Oliver Stone, no stranger to films about the Vietnam War (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, Heaven and Earth) is near a deal with United Artists to direct Pinkville (sounds pretty!), a film about the My Lai massacre (sounds unpretty!). 

According to freelance journalist Ron Ridenhour, who investigated the incident and presented then-President Richard Nixon with a letter describing his findings, “urban areas were all colored pink on military maps” and this one in particular was “considered to be hot, and so we called it Pinkville.” 

Bruce Willis and Channing Tatum (A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints and the recently completed Stop Loss) will play two of the lead roles; Michael Pena (Babel, World Trade Center) is in discussions to play the third. 

Stone had been considering making a film about the search for Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, but perhaps after hearing President Bush compare the current war to the Vietnam conflict, Stone realized it was six of one, half a dozen of the other.