Jake Gyllenhaal has signed on for a key role in upcoming World War II drama film The Lost Airman.
The actor will star and produce the film, which will be based upon Seth Meyerowitz’s 2016 non-fiction book titled The Lost Airman: A True Story of Escape from Nazi-Occupied France.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Gyllenhaal will produce the Amazon Studios project alongside John Lesher from Le Grisbi Productions and Riva Marker, his partner at Nine Stories Productions. A director and screenwriter for the movie has yet to be announced.
Based on recently declassified material, personal interviews, and extensive research into the French Resistance, the film will tell the story of American Air Force turret-gunner Staff Sergeant Arthur Meyerowitz, who was shot down over Nazi-occupied France and evaded Gestapo pursuers for more than six months before escaping.
Bronx-born Meyerowitz was one of only two men on the B-24 Liberator known as Harmful Lil Armful who escaped death or immediate capture on the ground, and the plot will focus on his befriending of Marcel Taillandier, founder of French resistance group Morhange, and his hair-raising journey to freedom involving a perilous trek over the Pyrenees and a voyage aboard a fishing boat in a war-torn region.
