Matthias Schoenaerts To Star As Bomb Disposal Expert In ‘Wildlands’, Tom Hardy To Produce & HanWay To Launch Sales — Cannes

Andreas Wiseman
·2 min read

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Matthias Schoenaerts (Rust And Bone) is set to star as bomb disposal specialist in Kim Mordaunt’s (The Rocket) Wildlands, which HanWay will be selling world rights on at the upcoming Cannes virtual market.

Inspired by Mordaunt’s ten-year relationship with the bomb disposal world in Asia and Africa, the film is based on the screenplay by Mordaunt and John Collee (Hotel Mumbai) and will be filmed on location in Africa.

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The film was developed by Red Lamp Films with the assistance of Screen Australia. Tom Hardy and Dean Baker of Hardy Son & Baker (Taboo) will produce together with Mordaunt’s producing partner Sylvia Wilczynski (The Rocket) through Red Lamp Films.

On the heels of his dismissal from UN forces following a failed mission in Afghanistan, the film will follow Richard Thomas, a jaded bomb disposal specialist with a penchant for recklessness, who gets a final shot at redemption when he’s sent to Angola, Africa – one of the most heavily mined lands in the world. There, his unexpected new team includes ten spirited Angolan women and their bomb-sniffing African Pouched Rats. Soon, he comes under pressure to make a remote village safe for civilians, but also finds love.

Kim Mordaunt noted: “In our divided times, Wildlands is a story that taps deeply into the zeitgeist; now more than ever we need stories that show men and women, black and white, nature and technology, working together and moving forward. The riveting Matthias Schoenaerts, alongside ten bold and dynamic women and their whimsical rats, are going to light up the screen.”

Schoenaerts is represented CAA and UBBA. Mordaunt is represented by The Gersh Agency and RGM Artists.

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