A prequel depicting the life/military exploits of Kurtz before his "reign" in Cambodia would be amazing

I feel like this would be interesting as hell - there is so much that could be put into the story that would pertain to events, development of characters, the mindset/descent into madness of Kurtz, and so on.

Obviously, a film would be a tall order - having somebody other than Brando as Kurtz would be damn near impossible to actually pull off. Yet, a novel would certainly be a terrific way to tell the story.

I definitely could see Kurtz's pre-Cambodia era being similar to the portrayal of T.E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia: an intelligent and lionhearted young officer who starts out as being a fresh faced idealist who slips further and further into darkness due to all of the hell he has experienced first hand.

Thoughts?