Mark Donaldson.
Icon's Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey have acquired the rights to VC winner Mark Donaldson's 2013 autobiography The Crossroad.
In 2009, Dorrigo native Donaldson became the first Australian to receive the Victoria Cross since 1969, awarded for saving the life of a wounded Afghan interpreter.
Donaldson's father, a Vietnam veteran, died of a heart attack when his son was just 16. Donaldson's mother disappeared, presumed murdered, three years later, when the teenager was studying in Sydney.
In the book, Donaldson describes how he could easily have spiralled out of control, but instead enlisted in the Australian Army, eventually joining Australia’s Special Air Service (SAS).
On September 2nd, 2008 whilst serving in Afghanistan, Donaldson was under Taliban fire when he took off, sprinting 80 metres to haul the injured man back to the safety of a slow-moving US Humvee that was also being peppered with enemy fire.
Gibson clearly has a soft spot for war heroes: his most recent film, Hacksaw Ridge, tells the story of Okinawa hero Desmond Doss, played by Andrew Garfield. Shot in Sydney and Bringelly late last year, the film is premiering in a couple of days at the Venice Film Festival and will bow locally on November 3.