CNY Connection To ‘The Revenant’ With Leonardo DiCaprio

There's a lot talk about The Revenant starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy being Oscar worthy this year. The author of the book this movie is based on graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca.

The screenplay for The Revenant is adapted from the successful Michael Punke 2002 novel (The Revenant) and loosely based on the life of Hugh Glass while on the Montana frontier in the late summer of 1823.

Michael Punke, The author of The Revenant, graduated as a junior from high school in Torrington, Wyoming and went to Cornell University Law School. According to The Cornell Daily Sun Michael Punke ’89, received his J.D. with a specialization in International Legal Affairs from Cornell Law School and he was elected Editor-in-Chief of the Cornell International Law Journal.

Michael Punke is the Deputy United States Trade Representative and US Ambassador to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, Switzerland. He’s about to be a famous author, but he’s already in a such a sensitive position that the State Department can’t let him talk to reporters.

Maxim.com reports:

When Michael Punke learned his 2002 novel "The Revenant," was being adapted into a Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy movie directed by Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, he was thrilled. When he heard Picador was re-releasing the book in hardback in January 2015, he was elated. When he heard he couldn’t talk about either of those facts he was – according to those closest to him anyway – pretty bummed

20th Century Fox teaser:

 Inspired by true events, THE REVENANT is an immersive and visceral cinematic experience capturing one man’s epic adventure of survival and the extraordinary power of the human spirit. In an expedition of the uncharted American wilderness, legendary explorer Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) is brutally attacked by a bear and left for dead by members of his own hunting team. In a quest to survive, Glass endures unimaginable grief as well as the betrayal of his confidant John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). Guided by sheer will and the love of his family, Glass must navigate a vicious winter in a relentless pursuit to live and find redemption.