Upon hearing that Oliver Stone’s latest project would be called Pinkville, a certain part of our brain immediately leapt to the conclusion that the director had finally decided to make the move into shooting porn.

But no – dragging our minds out of the gutter – we find that it’s actually Stone returning to a subject he’s very used to: the Vietnam War. Because Pinkville is based on the true-life story of William R Peers, the general who launched the infamous 1968 My Lai Massacre of civilians, with around 350,000 women, children and the elderly slaughtered by US soldiers.

Naturally the thought of Stone returning to the subject of some of his greatest films has the thesps lining up, with Bruce Willis already on board to play Peers, and Step Up’s Channing Tatum ready to co-star as Hugh Thompson Jr, an Army chopper pilot who helped save people by flying between the civilians and their attackers, rescuing survivors and testifying against the soldiers. Also circling a lead role is Michael Pena, who is considering teaming back up with his World Trade Center director to play Captain Ernest Medina, the commander of the troops responsible, who managed to escape charges for his actions.

United Artists is in negotiation to open its wallet to provide the $40 million that Stone will need to shoot Mikko Alanne’s script.