Crowhurst was an amateur sailor who entered the 1968 World Yacht Race in an attempt to circumnavigate the globe. While coping with the solitude of the 9-month voyage, Crowhurst began reporting false positions in an attempt to cheat the public, but ultimately went mad and killed himself. Prior to Weisz’s casting, Kate Winslet was originally attached to play Crowhurst’s “sea widow,” Clare, forced to raise their four children alone in dire financial straights after her husband mortgaged their business and home in order to compete in the race.
The script is by Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum, Contagion), who produces alongside Pete Czernin and Graham Broadbent of Blueprint Pictures and Nicolas Mauvernay and Jacques Perrin of Galatee. BBC Films and Studio Canal will co-finance, with shooting set to commence this spring. The Crowhurst story was previously covered in the 2007 documentary Deep Water.
After the recent success of Kingsman: The Secret Service, Firth has two more biopics in the wings: Genius, the story of famed Scribner editor Max Perkins, as well as The Happy Prince, which tells of the troubled last days of Oscar Wilde. Weisz will next be seen in Derek Cianfrance’s drama The Light Between Oceans.
(Photo Credit: WENN)
