Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey’s Icon Productions has acquired the movie rights to ex-Dorrigo local Mark Donaldson’s bestselling autobiography The Crossroad.
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Donaldson was a rebellious teenager who had already lost his father, a Vietnam War veteran, when his mother disappeared, presumed murdered.
A life of anger and self-sabotage beckoned, but he enlisted in the Australian Army and worked to achieve his goal of joining Australia’s elite Special Air Service.
In 2008 while serving in Afghanistan, he saved the life of a wounded Afghan interpreter while under Taliban fire, sprinting 80 meters to haul the injured man back to the safety of a slow-moving U.S.
Humvee that was also being hit by enemy fire from all angles. In 2009, he became the first Australian since 1969 to receive the Victoria Cross and was named Young Australian of the Year by the National Australia Day Council in 2010.
In the book, Donaldson shares the journey of a flawed man who turned away from self-destruction to fight his own war and save the life of a man he barely knew.
Icon was a producer on Gibson’s “Braveheart,” in which he portrayed Scottish hero William Wallace and won Academy Awards for best picture and best director, as well as the upcoming “Hacksaw Ridge” with Andrew Garfield starring as World War II hero Desmond T. Doss.
