An “unofficial sequel” to the Oscar-winning 1981 film Chariots of Fire has been greenlit, thanks to Chinese fans of Olympic gold-winning runner Eric Liddell, aka the Flying Scotsman, reports the Independent.
The Last Race will star Joseph Fiennes as the athlete, who was played by Ian Charleson in Hugh Hudson’s historical drama. The deeply religious Liddell was born in Tientsin, northern China, to Scottish missionaries, and returned there a year after his victory in the 400m at the Paris Olympics in 1924. He became a hero to the Chinese people, partly due to his athletic achievements – some consider him the first Chinese gold medallist – but mostly for his heroics while interned during the second world war at a Japanese prisoner of war camp in 1943.
Liddell organised the smuggling of food into the camp for the 2,000 starving inmates, and refused an opportunity to leave after Winston Churchill intervened on his behalf. He asked instead that a pregnant prisoner be allowed to depart the site in Weifang in east China. He died in 1945, aged 43, from a brain tumour.
Hong Kong director Stephen Shin will direct The Last Race from his own screenplay, with help from Canada’s Michael Parker. “It is not only the perfect movie theme, but it should also make younger generations more aware of their past,” said Shin. “All around the world, people gradually forget the importance of staying on alert so that dark parts of human history do not repeat themselves.”
Chinese-Canadian actor Shawn Dou will play Liddell’s Chinese friend and fellow prisoner Xu Niu in the drama. British actress Elizabeth Arends has also been cast in an unspecified role.
Chariots of Fire won four Oscars at the 1981 Academy Awards, including best picture, best original screenplay, best costume design and best original music for Vangelis’s stirring synthesiser score. The occasion is famous for screenwriter Colin Welland’s speech, in which he declared: “The British are coming”.
The Last Race appears likely to skirt over Liddell’s Christianity – Chariots of Fire describes how the runner refused to compete in his favoured 100m event in Paris because the heats were held on a Sunday – due to the Chinese government’s antipathy towards religion. As a Hong Kong-produced film, the drama will most likely not be counted as a foreign production: China only allows 34 foreign films to be screened there each year, with most of these slots going to Hollywood blockbusters.
