'Metro Manila' Helmer To Direct WWII Assassination Thriller, ANTHROPOID With Jamie Dornan And Cillian Murphy Starring

Oscar and BAFTA-nominated British director Sean Ellis is coming off a great precursor with his 2013 foreign language crime drama, Metro Manila, which picked of a slew of 9 wins and 11 nominations within the film festival scene at the time. Nowadays and 14 years into his career with his own inspiration, Ellis can be found preparing to take his his newest directorial efforts on location to Prague, pitting him right in the middle of World War 2 in the new assassination thriller, Anthropoid, with actors Jamie Dornan and Cillian Murphy leading.

Written by Ellis and co-scribe Anthony Frewin, the film title is a reference to the Allied forces operation in 1942 carried out by two British-trained Czech soldiers who parachuted into their homeland in what led to a nearly-failed mission to kill Reinhard Heydrich, a top official in Adolf Hitler's NAZI regime nicknamed "The Butcher of Prague” for his role in the Holocaust. The mission ultimately led to one of the biggest manhunts in history by the Third Reich. Anita Overland and Chris Curling are producing the film with 22h22's Leonard Glowinski and Czech Republic based Lucky Man Film's Krystof Mucha and David Ondricek co-producing. Altitude Film Sales will handle international sales.

Murphy, best known for his role in director Christopher Nolan's Inception and Warner Bros.'s Dark Knight trilogy is set to star in Ben Wheatley's upcoming 1970's crime pic, Free Fire, and is also posied to appear in Ron Howard's high seas action adventure, In The Heart Of The Sea this December with actor Chris Hemsworth. Dornan, not resting on his laurels for his title role in last month's theatrical release, 50 Shades Of Grey, is set to begin filming in April for another war epic, director Richie Smyth's The Siege Of Jadotville which Netflix acquired just a few weeks ago.

Anthropoid commenses filming this July.

H/T: Screendaily