‘Operation Mincemeat’: Matthew Macfadyen, Penelope Wilton, Johnny Flynn & Tom Wilkinson Join WWII Drama

Andreas Wiseman

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Matthew Macfadyen (Succession), Penelope Wilton (Downton Abbey), Johnny Flynn (Beast) and Tom Wilkinson (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) are joining Colin Firth and Kelly Macdonald in John Madden’s WWII drama Operation Mincemeat, which reunites Firth with The King’s Speech producer See-Saw Films.

Also joining the cast are Hattie Morahan (Official Secrets), Simon Russell Beale (Mary Queen Of Scots), Paul Ritter (Chernobyl) and Mark Gatiss (Sherlock). Filming is set to start later this month in London and Spain.

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Michelle Ashford (Masters of Sex) has adapted the screenplay based on the best-selling Ben McIntyre book of the same name.

Set in 1943, the film follows two brilliant intelligence officers, Ewen Montagu (Firth) and Charles Cholmondeley (Macfadyen) who conceived a plan that was dubbed Operation Mincemeat. They would trick the Nazis into thinking that Allied forces were planning to attack southern Europe by way of Greece rather than Sicily. Their plan was to get a corpse, equip it with misleading papers, then drop it off the coast of Spain where Nazi spies would take the bait.

A See-Saw Films and Cohen Media Group production, in association with Archery Pictures, the feature is being produced by Charles S. Cohen, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Kris Thykier. Simon Gillis, See-Saw’s COO of Film, will serve as executive producer. Jina Jay led casting.

FilmNation Entertainment alongside See-Saw’s in-house sales arm, Cross City Films, sold out international territories at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, with Warner Bros acquiring several key markets, including the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Benelux. Cross City Films and CAA Media Finance are co-repping U.S. rights.

Director Madden said, “Ben Macintyre’s book presents an irresistible range of characters navigating a world suspended between unreliable fact and enticing fiction, and demands a cast to match. I’m very excited about the ensemble that we’ve been able to bring together – a credit to Michelle’s Ashford’s rich and surprising script, which tells an extraordinary and thrilling story in unexpectedly human terms.”

Macfadyen is represented by UTA in the US and Hamilton Hodell in the UK Penelope Wilton is represented by Independent Talent Group Johnny Flynn is represented by CAA in the US and United Agents in the UK Tom Wilkinson is represented by Lou Coulson Associates. The Daily Mail was first out with the additional casting.

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