Gary Oldman is in talks to play Sir Winston Churchill.
Gary Oldman
Oldman is being lined up for the lead role in director Joe Wright's 'Darkest Hour', which will focus on Churchill becoming British Prime Minister in 1940, less than one year into World War II, and his subsequent struggle against Nazi Germany.
A source told the Daily Mail: "It's going to be Gary's tour de force performance."
'The Theory of Everything's Anthony McCarten is the screenwriter and producer for the project while Lisa Bruce and Working Title co-chiefs Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are also producing.
'Darkest Hour' is set to begin filming in July.
Churchill was under enormous pressure to make a deal with Adolf Hitler after taking office but three weeks after becoming Prime Minister he assembled a British fleet of more than 800 boats to save over 335,000 soldiers who had been cut off by the German army at Dunkirk on the French coast.
His memorable speech to Parliament afterwards included the words: "We shall fight on beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender."
And Dunkirk is also getting the big screen treatment later this year in a new movie starring One Direction's Harry Styles in his movie debut.
Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance, Sir Kenneth Branagh and Tom Hardy will also star in the Christopher Nolan-directed film, which will tell the story of the evacuation, named Operation Dynamo.
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