Fifty Shades of Grey star Jamie Dornan is to play a Czechoslovakian soldier who takes part in an assassination attempt on notorious SS officer Reinhard Heydrich in a new film to be directed by Sean Ellis, the British film-maker best known for the Philippines-set Metro Manila.
The film is to be called Anthropoid, named after the real-life Operation Anthropoid in which two Czechoslovak paratroopers attacked Heydrich’s car in Nazi-occupied Prague in 1942 after they had parachuted in following training by British forces.
Although the attack appeared initially unsuccessful, Heydrich died several days later from his injuries. His death resulted in the massacre of thousands of civilians by the SS in reprisal.
Ellis has co-scripted the film with Anthony Frewin, Stanley Kubrick’s former assistant and now a novelist. Peaky Blinders’ Cillian Murphy has been cast alongside Dornan, and shooting is due to begin in July.
Ellis said: “I feel incredibly proud to bring the story of Anthropoid to the big screen … In the Czech Republic, it is a story of great national pride, and it’s time to tell the world that story.”
Anthropoid appears to have beaten another film about the same operation, HHhH, into production. Based on Laurent Binet’s award-winning French novel, HHhH has a script by David Farr but has not yet attached a director.
