High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Rescue Dawn is a 2007 war drama film directed by Werner Herzog, based on an adapted screenplay written from his acclaimed 1997 documentary, Little Dieter Needs to Fly. The film stars Christian Bale, and is based on the true story of a German-American pilot named Dieter Dengler, who is shot down and captured by villagers sympathetic to the Pathet Lao during an American military campaign in the Vietnam War. Veteran actors Steve Zahn, Jeremy Davies, Pat Healy and Toby Huss also star in principal roles. The film project, which had initially come together during 2004, began shooting in Thailand in August 2005. Executive producers for the film comprised, Freddy Braidy, Jimmy De Brabant, Michael Dounaev and Gerald Green among others. Rescue Dawn explores subjects such as war, human torture and captivity.