Morgan Freeman lines up war movie

LOS ANGELES, June 16 (UPI) -- Morgan Freeman will star in an untitled World War II movie for DreamWorks, The Hollywood Reporter said Wednesday.

The paper said Freeman and "Remember the Titans" screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard are teaming for the project, about the 761st Tank Battalion -- also known as the Black Panther Tank Battalion. The 761st was the first black armored combat unit to see combat during World War II.

Attached to the XII Corps' 26th Infantry Division and assigned to Gen. George S. Patton Jr.'s Third Army, the battalion forced a hole in a German line of defense that allowed Patton's 4th Armored Division to storm into Germany from France. The 761st fought in France, Belgium, and Germany, and were among the first American forces to link up with the Soviet Army in Austria.

The battalion received a Presidential Unit Citation in 1978, 33 years after the end of the war.