Netflix and Peter Berg have set release dates for The Mosquito Bowl, a World War II drama based on Buzz Bissinger's New York Times bestseller. The film opens in select theaters on October 30 before arriving on Netflix on November 25.
The theatrical run is limited to select AMC locations, a pattern designed for award eligibility. It marks one of the rare occasions Netflix has partnered with AMC on a traditional theatrical window.
Berg directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Mark L. Smith, whose previous credits include The Revenant. The story follows four of the most celebrated college football players of the 1940s who enlisted in the Marines after Pearl Harbor. While training on Guadalcanal for the invasion of Okinawa, they take part in a legendary game between the 4th and 29th Marine regiments on Christmas Eve 1944. Of the 65 players in that game, 15 died in the battle that followed.
Bill Skarsgård, Nicholas Galitzine, Ray Nicholson, and Tom Francis lead the cast as Bob Baumann, John McLaughry, Tony Butkovich, and David Schreiner. Sports analyst Pat McAfee appears as a Marine drill instructor. Brian Grazer and Alex Gayner produce alongside Berg, who produces under his Film 44 banner.
Bissinger is best known for Friday Night Lights, his 1990 account of a Texas high school football season, which Berg adapted for the 2004 film and the long-running television series. The Mosquito Bowl, published in 2022, revisits that intersection of sport and sacrifice. By one measure, it is the deadliest single contest in American athletic history.
Berg is next attached to direct and co-write Call of Duty with Taylor Sheridan for Paramount.
