There is, of course, a Tony Scott movie in the pirate-kidnapping standoff that ended yesterday with Navy Seal snipers shooting three Somali pirates in the head (and one other pirate being captured) and thereby securing the freedom of freighter captain Richard Phillips. Or at least a fictional movie of some kind based on the misadventures of Somali pirates.

And I don’t mean some bullshit Raid on Entebbe thing like Menahem Golan would have greenlit 20 yuears ago. I mean a film with the first-rate chops of Black Hawk Down minus the grim downer vibe and a raw you-are-there quality. The material is certainly there. If I were a studio production chief I’d be hunting around right now for stories. Maybe there’s a City of God-type film to be made from the point-of-view of the pirates. That’s what my son Dylan suggested last weekend.