Director David Ayer believes that no great story should remain untold and once he read the script for Heart of the Beast, he knew that he wanted to be the person to tell this one. “It was simply one of the best pieces of writing I’d ever seen,” he says of the screenplay written by Cameron Alexander. “It didn’t just make me cry; it made me ugly cry. I’d have to stop and process a little bit, then start reading a few more pages.”