Turteltaub to direct Greenpeace movie

National Treasure helmer Jon Turteltaub will direct a movie about the formation of the Greenpeace movement, reports Variety.

The story will centre on Bob Hunter and Rex Weyler, the founders of the environmental organisation, as they assemble an eclectic group of ecologists, musicians and teachers to protest American and French nuclear tests, Japanese and Russian whaling ships and Norwegian seal hunters.

Aurelius Films has picked up the screen rights to two books - Weyler's Greenpeace: How A Group Of Ecologists, Journalists, And Visionaries Changed the World and Hunter's Warriors Of The Rainbow: A Chronicle Of The Greenpeace Movement - to base the movie on.

Jerry and Janet Zucker will produce the film alongside Aurelius's Matthew Joynes and Jesse Kennedy.

"We want to look at these unlikely heroes who became activists in spite of themselves," said Janet Zucker.