Fans of Netflix’s cartel miniseries Narcos will be happy to know that its director José Padilha is moving on to another thriller, Entebbe, this time on the big screen for UK heavy hitters Working Title. The film has just added Rosamund Pike, Vincent Cassel and Daniel Brühl to its ranks, according to Deadline.
The Brazilian director, best known otherwise for Elite Squad and RoboCop, will recount the hijacking of Air France Flight 139 in June 1976 by four German and Palestinian terrorists. Rerouted to Entebbe Airport in Uganda, the plane’s passengers were used as collateral in their bid to have Palestinian and pro-Palestinian prisoners released.
Things, however, did not go as planned. Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin and future leader Shimon Peres chewed over a special-forces raid to bring the hijack to an end. Huge political pressures and a ticking clock both cranked up the stress levels, as Greg Burke's (’71) screenplay will demonstrate.
No word on who the trio are playing yet, but our guess would be Cassel as the Air France pilot, a key player in the drama, while Pike and Brühl are Brigitte Kuhlmann and Wilfried Böse, the two German terrorists.
Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner are producing alongside Kate Solomon (United 93), so expect a high-calibre retelling of a story Irvin Kershner once made for TV as Raid On Entebbe.