The film is is based on author Laura Hillenbrand's 2010 bestselling biography, that chronicles the life of Olympic athlete Louis Zamperin ("Skins" and "Eden Lake" star Jack O'Connell). He was captured by the Japanese navy during World War II and detained at a P.O.W. camp. That came AFTER he survived both a near-fatal plane crash and being stuck on a raft for 47 days. Zamperini died on July 2nd 2014 at the age of 97.
Garrett Hedlund ("On the Road," "Tron: Legacy") will play fellow P.O.W. Commander John Fitzgerald Domhnall Gleeson ("About Time," "Anna Karenina") will play a fellow survivor of the plane crash. Alex Russell ("Chronicle) will play Pete, Zamperini’s older brother and member of the US athletics team for the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. John Magaro will play Frank A. Tinker, an Air Force dive bomb pilot and opera singer who befriends Zamperini en route to a Japanese POW camp. Japanese guitarist and singer Miyavi will play the role of that overseer Mutsuhiro Watanabe, known as 'The Bird', who made it his mission to break the spirit of Zamperini. Aussie actor Jordan Patrick Smith would play Cliff, an Australian prisoner who can’t take life in the prison camp much longer. Jai Courtney will play Hugh 'Cup' Cuppernell, a WWII veteran pilot who gets caught in tenacious midair gunfight alongside Zamperini.Finn Wittrock also stars.
"Les Miserables" writer William Nicholson penned a script draft for the pic. Richard Lagravenese worked on the script before that, but with Angelina Jolie now in the big chair a new draft was needed and she managed to convince the Joel and Joel Coen to do it.
Jolie came on board as director replacing the previously linked Francis Lawrence. This film marks Jolie's second effort as director following "In The Land Of Blood And Honey".
Matthew Baer ("The Replacement Killers") Clayton Townsend and Erwin Stoff ("The Blind Side") are producing with Jolie. Mick Garris is executive producing.
The film is scheduled for release on December 25, 2014.
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