Mendes to tackle Gulf War

Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes is to make a movie set during the first Gulf War (when Daddy Bush was in the White House) - and every young Hollywood leading male is battling to get in.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire are among the stars (informed LA executives tell me) who have let it be known they want to be in the film, based on Anthony Swofford's searing account of his service with an elite sniper unit of the U.S. Marines.

The Marines are known as Jarheads, because of their close-cropped haircuts. And Jarheads is the title of Swofford's tome - and also of the film Mendes will start shooting in the autumn.

Mendes, who won acclaim for American Beauty, will focus on the book's Desert Storm episodes, where Swofford, barely out of his teens, saw combat in the Gulf.

When I asked Mendes about the clamour from Hollywood's idols, he commented: 'It's not necessarily going to be all stars and I think you may find a new generation of actors coming through.'

He feels it is 'incredibly relevant' because of the current Iraq war. 'The names Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Saddam Hussein and George Bush are studded through this book and you can't be unaware that some things haven't changed.'

He added that, like all great war literature, 'you become aware that it's both specific and universal and it's not just about the first Gulf War, but wars that have gone before'.

Swofford's story, adapted by William Broyles, is by turns heartbreaking, irreverent and brutal, and as much about the nature of loyalty as it is about the hell of war. Parts of it are also outrageous, as he depicts the depths he and fellow grunts descended to during R & R breaks.

Mendes and staff at Universal Pictures and Scamp, the company he runs with Caro Newling and Pippa Harris, will look at desert locations in the U.S and Mexico.

Although the film won't be overtly political, it will point towards the failed policies of the present White House and No 10 incumbents, while honouring the men who fight against their will in unjust wars.