Zachary Levi is going from fighting for justice in the DC Universe to fighting for justice at Guantánamo Bay.
The actor, who last starred in the hit superhero movie Shazam!, has joined Benedict Cumberbatch, Jodie Foster, Shailene Woodley and Tahar Rahim in Prisoner 760, a true-life legal drama being directed by Kevin Macdonald.
30West, Topic Studios and BBC Film are behind the movie, now shooting in South Africa.
Billed as a fight for survival against impossible odds, 760 tells the true tale of Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a man who was captured by the U.S. government and held for years without charge or trial.
Slahi finds unlikely allies in defense attorneys Nancy Hollander and her associate Teri Duncan, being played by Foster and Woodley, respectively, who desperately pursue justice. They are aided by a military prosecutor named Lt. Stuart Couch (Cumberbatch).
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Levi will play an old friend of the prosecutor’s, a federal agent by the name of Neil Buckland.
The movie adapts Guantánamo Diary, the New York Times best-selling memoir that Slahi wrote while still imprisoned. The script is written by Michael Bronner, a former 60 Minutes producer who has a worked with Paul Greengrass on the filmmaker’s true-life big-screen stories United 93, Green Zone and Captain Phillips. Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani (The Informer) made revisions.
Cumberbatch is producing with Adam Ackland and Leah Clarke via their company SunnyMarch. Lloyd Levin and Beatriz Levin of Black Sheep Pictures, Mark Holder and Christine Holder of Wonder Street, and Branwen Prestwood Smith are also producing. Slahi is a co-producer.
STX International represents the international rights and will be directly distributing in the U.K. and Ireland. UTA Independent Film Group helped structure the financing on behalf of the filmmakers and is representing the U.S. rights with 30WEST.
Levi’s Shazam! became a fan-favorite superhero film that earned $365 million worldwide. A sequel, with Levi once again in the role of the classic DC hero, is now in development. Earlier this year, Levi also shared a SAG Award for best ensemble in a comedy series for his recurring role in season two of Amazon’s The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
He is repped by UTA, Untitled and McKuin Frankel.
