DUBLIN actor Domhnall Gleeson has been cast in Angelina Jolie’s upcoming war film Unbroken.
Jolie's second film as a director will be set during the Second World War and tells the true story of Olympic track star and war hero Louis Zamperini.
Jack O'Connell (Skins) has been cast as Zamperini who raced in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
In 1943 the athlete survived a plane crash in the Pacific Ocean, despite having no food and water for 47 days.
During this time he encountered shark attacks and also found himself in the midst of air attacks, before finally washing ashore on a Japanese island behind enemy lines.
Here, he was held as a prisoner of war and tortured for two years.
Gleeson and rising American star Finn Wittrock (All My Children) will play Phil and Mac - two of the men stranded at sea with Zamperini.
The eldest son of actor Brendan, Domhnall Gleeson is currently starring alongside Rachel McAdams (Sherlock Holmes) in Richard Curtis’ romantic comedy About Time – to be released next month - having originally made a name for himself as Bill Weasley in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
He received acclaim for a BBC feature-length drama When Harvey Met Bob, winning the IFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for the story documenting the creation of Live Aid.
Off-screen Gleeson has performed on stage in a number of plays.
In 2006 he received a Tony Award nomination for his role in Broadway production The Lieutenant of Inishmore. He has also performed at Dublin's Gate Theatre in adaptations including Great Expectations.
Unbroken is an adaptation of Laura Hillendbrand’s best-selling book - Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival Resilience and Redemption and will be produced from a script by Oscar-winning writers, brothers Joel and Ethan Coen.
The war drama has received a Christmas 2014 release date from Universal Pictures.
See next week's Irish Post for an in-depth interview with Domhnall Gleeson.
See More: Angelina Jolie, Domhnall Gleeson, Film, Film, Unbroken, WWII
