'Yankee Comandante' Will Reunite Adam Driver And 'Midnight Special' Director Jeff Nichols

Jeff Nichols, one of the more underrated directors working today, is reuniting with Adam Driver for Yankee Comandante. The film will tell the true story of a man from Ohio who "rose to the rank of comandante during the Cuban Revolution" alongside Che Guevara. Nichols and Driver previously worked together on the criminally underseen Midnight Special.Variety has the news on Yankee Comandante, a new film from Jeff Nichols starring Adam Driver. It's based on a true story, chronicled in a New Yorker article by David Grann about "two people who rose to the rank of comandante during the Cuban Revolution. One was Che Guevara. The other was a man from Ohio." The man from Ohio – whom Driver will presumably be playing – was named William Morgan, and his story was also chronicled in Aran Shetterly's book The Americano. Regarding the story, Grann said:

"It's about a man who both fell in love with a cause and kind of found himself, and a man who had this great, passionate romance during the revolution and fell in love with a Cuban woman. She was still alive. She's a wonderful lady, incredibly spirited woman; she's in her 70s now and still as spirited as ever but it took a little while for her to feel comfortable, to want to cooperate. When she did, I knew I had a great story."

Grann's name might be familiar to some, as his articles and books have served as inspiration for several movies, including The Lost City of Z, The Old Man & the Gun, and Martin Scorsese's upcoming Killers of the Flower Moon.

Nichols' work includes Take Shelter, Mud, Midnight Special, and Loving, all of which were either good or great, while also being mostly ignored by wide audiences. Which is a shame, because he's got the goods, and this sounds like great material for him to work with. Throwing Driver, who has fast become one of the best actors working right now, into the mix is a bonus as well.

There's no official word on when the production of Yankee Comandante might commence, what with the coronavirus halting pretty much everything, but Variety says the hope is to start shooting in 2021.