Sam Claflin, Rupert Friend Join WWII Actioner ‘Perdition’

British actors Sam Claflin (Peaky Blinders) and Rupert Friend (Obi-Wan Kenobi) have signed on to star in the WWII action thriller Perdition, from writer-director Henry Dunham (The Standoff At Sparrow Creek) and Basil Iwanyk and Erica Lee of John Wick producers Thunder Road Pictures.

Claflin will also executive produce the feature, currently in pre-production, with principal photography set to start this fall.

Mister Smith Entertainment is handling international sales on the film and will pitch the project to buyers for pre-sales at the Cannes film market next week. CAA Media Finance and UTA Independent Film Group are co-repping North American rights.

Perdition is set in December 1944 in Belgium on the Western front as WWII hurtles toward its brutal climax. Clafin plays a lone American soldier who miraculously survives a POW camp execution and escapes into the freezing landscape to save himself and the precious cargo he salvaged from the camp. But hot in pursuit is a ruthless Nazi SS officer on horseback (Friend) who is obsessed with hunting him down.

“Perdition is a story about a chance survival, the responsibility it imbues, and the need to make it count for something, even while being chased by a seemingly omnipotent force,” said Dunham in a statement. “[It is] a highly dramatic, classical, visual action thriller about timeless aspects of the human experience.”

Dunham plans to shoot Perdition on 35 mm, emphasizing the theatrical nature of the project.

Claflin received a Golden Globe nomination for his most recent role, appearing alongside Riley Keough in Amazon’s 70s-set period drama series Daisy Jones And The Six. He is currently filming Harlan Coben’s mini-series Lazarus, also for Amazon, starring alongside Bill Nighy, and has wrapped production on the new The Count Of Monte Cristo TV adaptation, from France Television, Italy’s RAI and Mediawan Rights, in which he plays the lead, opposite Jeremy Irons. On the film side, upcoming projects include Colm McCarthy’s horror feature Bagman, and the Barnaby Roper-directed mystery thriller Animal.

Friend’s recent roles include supporting turns in Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City and the director’s Roald Dahl shorts The Swan and The Ratcacher on Netflix, as well as a turn as the Grand Inquisitor in the Disney+ series Obi Wan Kenobi. Upcoming features include turns in the Pierre Morel-directed actioner Canary Black alongside Kate Beckinsale, and in the Drew Hancock-directed sci-fi thriller Companion with Lucas Gage and Jack Quaid.

The Standoff At Sparrow Creek, Dunham’s debut, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in 2018. His next feature will be the thriller Wichita Libra, starring Phoebe Dynevor, set to begin shooting this summer.

Dunham is represented by UTA, Anonymous Content, and attorney Stephen Clark of Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler, Feldman, & Clark. Claflin by CAA, Independent Talent Group, Glaser, Weil, Fink, Jacobs, Howard, Avchen & Shapiro, and SJ Comms. Friend is represented by UTA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, and Steve Warren and Jennifer Gray at Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller, Gellman, Meigs & Fox. Thunder Road Pictures is represented by CAA Media Finance.