The Weinstein Company has announced that it has acquired US rights to Jonathan Teplitzky’s The Railway Man, starring Academy Award-winner Colin Firth, Academy Award-winner Nicole Kidman, Jeremy Irvine, Stellan Skarsgard, Sam Reid, Tanroh Ishida and Hiroyuki Sanada.
Featuring a screenplay by Frank Cottrell Boyce and Andy Paterson, The Railway Man was produced by Paterson, Chris Brown and Bill Curbishley, and executive produced by Silver Reel’s Claudia Bluemhuber and Ian Hutchinson, Lionsgate UK’s Zygi Kamasa and Nick Manzi, Daria Jovicic and Anand Tucker.
Based on a remarkable autobiography, The Railway Man tells the extraordinary and epic true story of Eric Lomax, a British Army officer who is tormented as a prisoner of war at a Japanese labor camp during World War II. Decades later, Lomax discovers that the Japanese interpreter he holds responsible for much of his treatment is still alive and sets out to confront him, and his haunting past, in this powerful tale of survival, love and redemption
Commented TWC Co-Chairman Harvey Weinstein: “With remarkable performances from Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman and Jeremy Irvine, Jonathan Teplitzky has crafted a moving and compelling film based on an incredible true story of a man named Eric Lomax, who was a POW during World War II. After watching people jump to their feet applauding when the credits rolled with tears in their eyes, we knew this was a film we wanted to help take to audiences across America.”
The film is an Australia/UK co-production, presented by Screen Australia in association with Silver Reel, Screen Queensland, Creative Scotland, Screen NSW and Lionsgate UK. The Weinstein Company will release the film in 2014.
