Doug Liman has made a film in lockdown, is currently prepping to go to space with Tom Cruise in October 2021, and has now decided to take Ewan McGregor to the highest point on terra firma for a thriller set on Mount Everest.
According to Deadline Liman will take Ewan McGregor, Mark Strong, and Outlander’s Sam Heughan on an expedition written by Up in the Air’s Oscar-nominated Sheldon Turner.
Inspired by the novel Paths of Glory, written by Jeffrey Archer, here’s the official synopsis for Everest:
1921. Everest remains the very last great unconquered challenge on earth. Many have sacrificed their sanity and often their lives in the attempt to reach its fabled summit. George Mallory (McGregor) is picked by the arrogant Arthur Hinks (Strong) of the Royal Geographic Society to scale the impossible. Following the First World War, the fading British empire is desperate for a restorative victory, but for Mallory and his rival, the eccentric Aussie George Finch (Heughan), the challenge of Everest has nothing to do with patriotism, instead it is a singular test of self. Climbing without oxygen, to heights not even planes can reach, Mallory‘s successive attempts to make the summit sees a challenge become an all-consuming obsession. It leads him to abandon his beloved wife and three children for months on end, give up his job, and push his body to the limits of human endurance. Everest becomes a very real monster for Mallory, his 45-degree climb to the peak is an inhuman mix of vertigo and nerve-shredding tension, requiring all of his fearlessness and audacity. It takes everything from him for reasons he can barely articulate: because it’s grander than him, it’s the last empty part of the map, and as he simply puts it – ‘because it’s there’.
The most recent cinematic trip to the summit of Everest was in Working Title’s star-studded 2015 film, which earned over $200M at the global box office. Are you excited to return to the mountain so soon after that? Let us know what you think of this news by heading to our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
