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National Geographic Entertainment and Imagenation Abu Dhabi will join Exclusive Media Group and Spitfire Pictures in producing “The Way Back,” written and directed by six-time Academy Award nominee Peter Weir (“Master and Commander,” “The Truman Show,” “Dead Poets Society”). In October 2008 National Geographic Entertainment and Imagenation Abu Dhabi announced a fund that committed $100 million to develop, produce, finance and acquire 10 to 15 films over the following five years. “The Way Back” is their first joint effort utilizing this fund.
Jim Sturgess (“21,” “Across the Universe”), Academy Award nominee Ed Harris (“A Beautiful Mind,” “Apollo 13”), Oscar® nominee Saoirse Ronan (“Atonement,” Peter Jackson’s upcoming “Lovely Bones”) and Golden Globe winner Colin Farrell (“In Bruges,” “Miami Vice”) will star in this epic adventure, which is inspired by Slavomir Rawicz’s acclaimed novel, “The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom,” as well as from other real-life accounts.
“The Way Back” chronicles the escape of a small group of multi-national prisoners from a Siberian gulag in 1940 and their epic journey over thousands of miles across five hostile countries. Principal photography has started in Bulgaria.
Spitfire Pictures is producing for parent company Exclusive Media Group, the global film entertainment group, which is backed by the strategic investment group Cyrte Investments and combines Spitfire, London-based Hammer Films and Exclusive Film Distribution. Exclusive Film Distribution is handling worldwide sales and distribution for the film.
Edward Borgerding, CEO of Imagenation Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi Media Company, said, “We couldn’t think of a better and more prestigious first project for the partnership between National Geographic and Imagenation Abu Dhabi. Peter Weir is one of the great directors working today. We are very excited about this movie with its wonderful cast and riveting story of human endurance and love for freedom.
National Geographic Films Chairman Jake Eberts said, “Slavomir Rawicz’s book that inspired ‘The Way Back’ has long been considered an adventurer’s adventure, beloved by explorers, historians and other writers. It is one of the great escape stories of all time. Translated into 25 languages, it has the classic man-against-nature structure, but it also deals with man’s inhumanity toward one another, man’s capacity to help other men, and man’s ability to forgive but not to forget. It has thrills and excitement in epic and unusual settings, but ultimately it is about strong-willed people fighting to connect with each other while yearning for peace and home.”
Exclusive Media Group’s Co-Chairman and Co-CEO Nigel Sinclair said, “My colleague Guy East, Jake Eberts and I have a long and happy history of working on movies together, and we are proud and excited to have Tim Kelly and Adam Leipzig at National Geographic and Mohamed Khalaf Al-Mazrouei and Edward Borgerding at Imagenation Abu Dhabi as partners on Peter’s film.”
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