JAMES CAIRD SOCIETY SHACKLETON NEWS

SHACKLETON IN HOLLYWOOD

A planned new film about Shackleton, to be directed by the Hollywood-based German director Wolfgang Peterson, is either delayed or shelved.

Prior to the emergence of the Channel 4's Shackleton, the rumours were rife that Peterson, already in possession of dramatic heavy seas footage from The Perfect Storm, was all but ready to embark on thje project. At that time, available information on Peterson's projected film Endurance (Radiant / Columbia / Sony Pictures Entertainment) was that it would run for around 90 minutes and would have a screenplay by Jeff Maguire, Ronald Bass and Steve Zaillian (who scripted Schindler's List).

Names mentioned to star, at various times, have included Mel Gibson, George Clooney, Russell Crowe, Jeremy Northam and Clive Owen, but one website reports (July 2001) that Crowe was the candidate most favoured by Peterson, and has edged ahead of rival contenders.

However the speculation was premature : Peterson, already acclaimed also for In The Line of Fire, Airforce One, Outbreak (with Dustin Hoffman) and Das Boot, the terrifying serialised story of the tribulations of a German World War II Submarine, as well as The Perfect Storm, is currently preoccupied with a new project, a film based on Homer's Trojan story The Iliad.