Variety brings word of an Immortals reunion today as both Luke Evans and the Man of Steel himself, Henry Cavill, have boarded starry Iraq war thriller, Sand Castle.
Enlisting to play brothers in arms, the pairing join Mad Max: Fury Road star Nicolas Hoult in the drama, which is to be directed by Fernando Coimbra, a filmmaker that needs no introduction after helming several episode of Netflix’s so-hot-right-now drugs series, Narcos. For the longest time, it looked as though Fantastic Four‘s Toby Kebbell would commit to a part in the war-time drama, though the fact that the project has been simmering in development for a while has led the actor to seek pastures anew.
Scripted by Chris Roessner, Sand Castle recounts the scribe’s experiences operating in Iraq as a machine gunner. Across two gruelling years, Roessner partook in over 200 missions, largely dancing around the country’s infamous Sunni Triangle. According to Variety, Hoult’s Matt Ocre acts as the anchor of the pulse-pounding story who, along with Sergeant Baker (Evans), batten down the hatches as they try to protect Baqubah, a farming village in the region, from an onslaught of dangerous enemies.
Going through hell and high water, Baker and Ocre will be under the command of Henry Cavill’s special forces captain, pulling the strings as the operative team engages with some of the deadliest armed forces in the Iraqi region.
With Coimbra instated behind the lens and Cavill and Evans on board, Sand Castle is primed to kick off production next month, eyeing a release at some point in 2016. Buoyed by the box office haul of American Sniper, war-time dramas have fast become fertile ground for major studios, and Coimbra’s Sand Castle has pedigree in spades as it looks to tackle a high-octane thriller in a timely, astute fashion.
