Rachel Weisz will star opposite Colin Firth in the classic war autobiography, The Railway Man, Variety have reported this week. The film directed by Jonathan Teplitzky (Burning Man), is based on the best-selling autobiography by Eric Lomax, who throughout his childhood possessed a passion for trains.
The story follows Lomax, a Scottish second lieutenant who was captured by the Japanese in Singapore during the war and sent to Thailand to work on the infamous Burma-Siam railroad. Whilst working on this barbaric project that claimed the lives of 250,000 men, Lomax constructed a radio to bring news of the war and secretly drew a map of the railroad, for which he suffered brutal and incessant torture and interrogation. Fifty years later, still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, Lomax sought out one of the Japanese tormentors, meeting him on a hillside overlooking the River Kwai Bridge. But Lomax’s object in meeting Takashi again was not revenge. It was reconciliation.
Firth (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) will play Lomax and Weisz (Dream House) as his wife Patti. Jeremy Irvine (War Horse) has also been cast as the younger Lomax during the WW2 scenes.
The adaptation is written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and Andy Paterson, and begins shooting next February in Australia, Thailand and the UK. This sounds like it could be a big awards contender, with a great cast already in the line-up.
Britscene
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