‘Nuremberg:’ WME Independent Boards Historical Drama

WME Independent has signed on to rep world sales rights on Nuremberg, a historical drama set in post-war Germany from filmmaker James Vanderbilt (Zodiac, Truth), and will introduce the pic to buyers at the upcoming Cannes market. 

The film is led by Russell Crowe (Gladiator), Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody), and Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals, Revolutionary Road). Rounding out the ensemble are Richard E. Grant, Leo Woodall, John Slattery, Mark O’Brien, Colin Hanks, Lydia Peckham, Wrenn Schmidt, Lotte Verbeek, and Andreas Pietschmann.

Vanderbilt directs from a script he adapted from the book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai. Production is currently underway in Hungary. Nick Meyer’s Sierra Pictures is also consulting on the sales and distribution of the film. 

Nuremberg chronicles the eponymous trials held by the Allied Forces against the defeated Nazi regime. The film will center on American psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Malek), who is tasked with determining whether Nazi prisoners are fit to stand trial for their war crimes and finds himself in a complex battle of wits with Hermann Göring (Crowe), Hitler’s right-hand man. Shannon will play Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, the chief prosecutor of the Nuremberg trials.

Bluestone Entertainment, Walden Media, and Széchenyi Funds acquired the rights to El-Hai’s book and Vanderbilt’s script and are financing the film. Richard Saperstein, William Sherak, Brad Fischer, Vanderbilt, Istvan Major, and Paul Neinstein are producing, along with Walden’s Frank Smith, Benjamin Tappan, and Cher Hawrysh. Executive producers include Annie Saperstein, Brooke Saperstein, Beau Turpin, W. Porter Payne, Jr., Géza Deme, and Tamás Hajnal. The project was previously in development at Vanderbilt, Sherak, and Fischer’s Mythology Entertainment.