As those of us in the northern hemisphere batten down the hatches and prepare for the bone-chilling winds of winter, spare a thought for the cast and crew of Baltasar Kormákur’s Everest, who braved the unforgiving environments of Nepal and northern Italy all in the name of the director’s true-life mountaineering disaster flick.
Taking place in the year 1996, the film will chronicle the tale of three rivalling expeditions all competing to scale the world’s highest, near-unassailable peak. Things soon go awry when an unrelenting storm hampers their quest, killing eight of the brave climbers in the process. Everest will draw upon Jon Krakauer’s acclaimed book Into Thin Air, while also taking inspiration from similar novels and interviews with those that lived to tell the tale.
Working Title has doubled down on the dramatic source material by enlisting a star-studded cast that includes the likes of Nightcrawler‘s Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Brolin, Jason Clarke, Keira Knightley, House of Cards’ Robin Wright, Emily Watson, Clive Standen, Michael Kelly and Sam Worthington. The studio has snapped up Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner for producing duties, while William Nicholson (Gladiator, Les Misérables) will provide the screenplay.
Give the ensemble cast of Hollywood heavyweights, there’s no doubting that Everest is fast becoming one of the early award contenders for next season. History has taught us that the Academy has a particular soft spot for real-life tales of heroism and overcoming seemingly impossible odds which, coupled with the meaty subject matter, positions Kormákur’s epic in an enviable spot even so far out from its release.
Baltasar Kormákur will head for Earth’s highest peak when Everest arrives in theaters on September 18, 2015.
