Peter Weir is one of those directors whom I like very much, but tend to occasionally forget all about because he’s so darn picky with his projects. So picky in fact that years can go by (and have) in between his gigs. Having been on paid administrative leave the last five years, since Master and Commander, he’s finally set to resurface with “The Way Back”
Not a Mr. Peabody and Sherman biopic but rather an account of soldiers who escaped from a Siberian gulag in 1940. Said soldiers took the scenic route over the Siberian arctic, the Gobi desert (one of the more underrated deserts by the way) with a detour over the Himalayas before heading to India for some samosas (that last part is unconfirmed).
Weir wrote the script from the Slavomir Rawicz novel, “The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom,” as well as several other sources. Weir will also add a producer slash to his credit to this film, along with Duncan Henderson, Joni Levin and Nigel Sinclair through Spitfire Pictures among a gaggle of other companies.
No word on casting yet, but is there anyone who isn’t just dying for Weir to reteam with Harrison Ford so Ford can dust off his Russian accent…?