Looking to follow his award-winning Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory Of Everything, James Marsh is once more opening up the world of real-life events for a biopic of adventurous but seemingly doomed sailor Donald Crowhurst. With Colin Firth already aboard in the lead for the as-yet-untitled project, Marsh is now looking to add Rachel Weisz.
Crowhurst entered the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race in 1968 in the hopes of picking up a cash prize that would help save his faltering radio beacon business. He built a trimaran boat called the Teignmouth Electron in a hurry, but had to leave several safety features uncompleted before setting sail. He encountered problems almost immediately and began to steer erratically, eventually succumbing to conflicted psychological issues and irrationality. Although he kept filing positions claiming he was circumnavigating the globe, his boat – spoiler alert – was found adrift and abandoned on 10 July 1969. Marsh is looking to start the cameras rolling in the next couple of months.
Deadline’s story doesn’t specify which role Weisz is eyeing, but a safe bet would be that of Crowhurst’s wife, Clare, which Kate Winslet was considering at an earlier stage of the film’s development. She’s worked on several films recently, including The Early Years, The Lobster and Derek Cianfrance’s The Light Between Oceans opposite Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander.