“Watchmen” actor Jeremy Irons is headlining Netflix original film “Munich,” an adaptation of the bestselling 2017 novel by Robert Harris (“Fatherland”).
The film is set in the fall of 1938 when Europe stands on the brink of war. Adolf Hitler is preparing to invade Czechoslovakia and Neville Chamberlain’s government desperately seeks a peaceful solution. With the pressure building, British civil servant Hugh Legat and Paul von Hartmann, a German diplomat, travel to Munich for the emergency conference. As negotiations begin, the two old friends find themselves at the centre of a web of political subterfuge and very real danger.
Irons plays Chamberlain, while “1917” actor George McKay portrays Legat. The cast also includes Jannis Niehwöhner (“The Turncoat”), Liv Lisa Fries (“Babylon Berlin”), Erin Doherty (“The Crown”), Sandra Hüller (“Toni Erdmann”), August Diehl (“A Hidden Life”), Robert Bathurst (“Downton Abbey”), and Marc Limpach (“Bad Banks”). Martin Wuttke, who played Hitler in “Inglourious Basterds,” will reprise his role as the German dictator.
The novel adaptation is by Ben Power (“The Hollow Crown”), and Christian Schwochow (“The Crown”) is directing. Andrew Eaton (“The Crown,” “The Trip” franchise, “Rush”) is producing for Turbine Studios.
Robert Harris said, “It’s great to see an actor of Jeremy Irons’ stature playing Neville Chamberlain. This will be the first time a major movie has gone beyond the cult of Winston Churchill and tried to show Chamberlain in a more sympathetic light.”
The film is now filming in Germany and will also shoot in the U.K. Netflix will release the film in 2021.
Irons won his best actor Oscar for “Reversal of Fortune” in 1990.