There is a film about a real-life person requiring a leading man! You just know the bright red Biopic Phone in Michael Sheen’s house has been ringing off the hook. And so it is that Sheen has snagged the job of playing mountaineer George Mallory for **In High Places{
Joining Sheen in the film are Kelly Macdonald, playing Mallory’s wife Ruth and Sherlock’s Andrew Scott, who is set as fellow climber Noel Odell. James McEachen is directing the film from his own script, which will chronicle the full story of the 1920s explorer who took part in the first three British expeditions to Everest.
“I have been fascinated by George Mallory for as long as I can remember,” McEachen says in a statement picked up by Screen International. “That led directly to my own Himalayan climbs in the '90’s, including leading an expedition to 27,766 foot Makalu in 1992.
“It was this direct experience that gave me a deep-seated respect for the bold imagination and war-hardened bravery that Mallory and his companions displayed in their quest for the summit of Everest, long before the age of Gore-Tex and titanium.” The cameras will be rolling this September in India, London, Cologne and South Tyrol, Italy.
Sheen has a regular job as the lead in US cable drama Masters Of Sex, and will next be seen on the big screen in Far From The Madding Crowd, which is out on May 1. Macdonald was last seen in Anna Karenina and worked on Boardwalk Empire. Scott is part of the cast for the latest Bond outing, Spectre, which is set for UK screens on October 23 before opening elsewhere in the world in November 6. Everest itself will be the subject of a film, with the eponymous Baltasar Kormákur drama set to climb into cinemas on October 2.