Actor Jamie Dornan, director Sean Ellis, actress Aňa Geislerová and producers Pete Shilaimen and David Ondříček presented their new project at a press conference on Thursday, a drama about the assassination of Heydrich called Anthropoid, which will start shooting in Prague in the coming weeks.
"At school we dealt with World War II of course, but I didn't pay much attention. I never heard about this episode until I read the script. Then I was astonished I didn't know about it," said Jamie Dornan, who came to Karlovy Vary for a quick visit from London. Parachutist Jan Kubiš is most similar to him of all his roles in his own words. "I come from Belfast. There we dealt with conflict, injustice and disunity a lot. That influences you as a person," he said at the press conference.
British filmmaker Sean Ellis learned about the assassination of the high-ranking Nazi in 2001 from a documentary. When he was looking for his next inspiration after his third film Metro Manila, which won the audience award at Sundance 2013, he decided for Anthropoid. "It's a story that everyone should know about. What's more, I found a similar heroism and sacrifice in it as in the story of Metro Manila," the director said.
Ellis studied plenty of material on the topic and the first version of his script apparently had 680 pages. He also watched all the films about the killing of Heydrich, including the Czech film Atentát by Jiří Sequens from 1964. "It's a great film. But it is mostly about the actions, the emotions are missing. I can't tell from it what it was like to be Kubiš and Gabčík. They were normal people in abnormal conditions, not invincible fighters," thinks Ellis. Jamie Dornan and his colleague Cillian Murphy thus have the task of playing the parachutists so that audiences can relate to them.
Aside from the aforementioned Irish stars, the film will also star Aňa Geislerová, Alena Mihulová, Jan Budař, Václav Neužil and Toby Jones. The role of Karel Čurda, who betrayed the assassins, has not yet been filled. "We're looking for a suitable actor both in the Czech Republic and Britain," Ellis said.
