Deadline is reporting that Anthropoid stars Cillian Murphy and Jamie Dornan have signed on to star alongside Pierce Brosnan in H-Block, a new film from Oscar-nominated director Jim Sheridan (In the Name of the Father, My Left Foot, In America).
The film will tell the story of the ‘Great Escape’ from Maze Prison in Northern Ireland, where thirty-eight prisoners escaped from the maximum security H-Block, with only nineteen recaptured. The violent breakout saw twenty people injured, while one prison officer died of a heart attack after being stabbed.
Murphy will play the head of the IRA prisoners, who has earned the respect of the guards and now just wants a life of peace. Dornan will portray an IRA member who begins to discover weaknesses in the prison’s security, while Brosnan is starring as the film’s antagonist, the warden of Maze Prison who finds himself pitted against the escapees.
Sheridan is currently rewriting the script with Nic Sheff, working from an original draft by Tony Devilin and Gavin McCloskey.
Originally published April 30, 2017. Updated April 15, 2018.
