Colin Firth is to play amateur sailor Donald Crowhurst in a new biopic.
The Oscar-winning star will play the central character in the new movie, which tells the story of Crowhurst’s efforts to win the first World Yacht Race in 1968.
The project – which is being led by ‘The Theory of Everything’ director James Marsh – will begin shooting in the spring and is being produced by Pete Czernin, Graham Broadbent and Scott Z Burns, with Burns penning the script, Deadline reports.
Crowhurst – whose life has already been the subject of numerous documentaries and films – died in 1969 while competing in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race, a single-handed, round-the-world yacht race.
He entered the competition in the hope of securing a cash prize to fund his failing business, but secretly abandoned the race while reporting false positions, thereby completing a circumnavigation without actually circling the world.
Crowhurst’s logs suggest he suffered a mental breakdown during the race and took his own life by jumping overboard.
Meanwhile, Firth – who stars in ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’ – recently revealed he photographed every bruise he got while making the action film because he was "so proud" of them.
The 54-year-old actor said: "We had loads [of injuries]. But I’m so proud of them – they’re trophies!
"Because there was always this doubt that anybody was going to believe that I was doing it if anyone got a bruise, or certainly if I got a bruise, it was photographed.
"It wasn’t, ‘Get the nurse,’ it was, ‘Get the camera.’ Show the bruise or the broken tooth."
Colin Firth to play Donald Crowhurst in new biopic
