Peter Berg’s Netflix War Movie ‘The Mosquito Bowl’ to Premiere at AFI Fest (Exclusive)

The Mosquito Bowl, Peter Berg’s adaptation of Buzz Bissinger’s New York Times bestseller of the same name, which recounts the true story of four college football stars who enlisted in the Marines after the attack on Pearl Harbor and wound up fighting in the brutal invasion of Okinawa, will have its world premiere at the 40th AFI FEST, The Hollywood Reporter can exclusively report. The film will be unveiled at a gala premiere at the TCL Chinese Theatre on Oct. 22.

Berg and Bissinger, who are cousins, previously collaborated on the 2004 film and 2008-2011 TV versions of Friday Night Lights.

The Mosquito Bowl film, which Berg co-wrote with Mark L. Smith, directed and produced alongside Brian Grazer and Alex Gayner, stars four of Hollywood’s top rising stars: Nicholas Galitzine as John McLaughry, Bill Skarsgård as Bob Bauman, Ray Nicholson as Tony Butkovich and Tom Francis as David Schreiner. Netflix will release it in theaters on Oct. 30 and then on its streaming platform on Nov. 25.

THR has also learned that The Mosquito Bowl will receive an awards push highlighting the overall film and the aforementioned individuals, as well as the particularly significant achievements of the film’s crafts team. Among the standouts: nine-time Oscar-nominated sound designer Wylie Stateman, Oscar-nominated VFX supervisor Ariel Velasco Shaw, BAFTA-winning hair and makeup designer Angela Conte, BAFTA-nominated production designer Phil Ivey, cinematographer Jacques Jouffret, composers Explosions in the Sky, editors Jon Otazua and Garret Donnelly, and casting director Rachel Tenner.