James Vanderbilt’s ‘Nuremberg’ Adds Richard E. Grant, Leo Woodall, John Slattery, Lydia Peckham, Wrenn Schmidt, Lotte Verbeek & Andreas Pietschmann

EXCLUSIVE: James Vanderbilt has rounded out the cast for his historical drama Nuremberg, toplined by Russell Crowe, Rami Malek and Michael Shannon. New additions to the pic, commencing production in Hungary in February, include Richard E. Grant (Saltburn), Leo Woodall (The White Lotus), John Slattery (Mad Men), Lydia Peckham (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes), Wrenn Schmidt (For All Mankind), Lotte Verbeek (Outlander) and Andreas Pietschmann (Dark).

Hailing from Bluestone Entertainment and Walden Media, the film is set against the backdrop of post-war Germany and chronicles the eponymous trials held by the Allies against the defeated Nazi regime. Vanderbilt is directing from his script, adapted from the book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai.

Grant will play Sir David Maxwell-Fyfe, the British prosecuting attorney who worked alongside Justice Robert Jackson (Shannon), the chief prosecutor of the Nuremberg trials. Woodall takes on the role of Sgt. Howie Triest, the primary translator for Nazi Party leader Hermann Göring (Crowe) and American psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Malek), who is tasked with determining whether Nazi prisoners are fit to stand trial for their war crimes. Slattery plays Colonel Burton C. Andrus, commandant of the Nuremberg prison, while Peckham plays Lila, a young journalist covering the Nuremberg trials. Schmidt portrays Elsie, right hand to Justice Robert Jackson, with Verbeek as Hermann Göring’s wife, Emmy, and Pietschmann as Rudolf Hess, Deputy to the Führer Adolf Hitler and one of the defendants on trial.

Bluestone, Walden and Széchenyi Funds acquired rights to El-Hai’s book and Vanderbilt’s script and are financing the film. Producers of the pic include Richard Saperstein, William Sherak, Brad Fischer, Vanderbilt, Istvan Major, and Paul Neinstein, as well as Walden’s Frank Smith, Benjamin Tappan, and Cher Hawrysh. Exec producers are Annie Saperstein, Brooke Saperstein, Beau Turpin, W. Porter Payne, Jr., Géza Deme, and Tamás Hajnal. The project was previously in development at Vanderbilt, Sherak, and Fischer’s Mythology Entertainment. John Papsidera, CSA (Oppenheimer) handled casting.

Grant is represented by Curtis Brown Group and WME; Woodall by Gersh, Hamilton Hodell, Anonymous Content, and Goodman, Genow, Schenkman; Slattery by Gersh and Untitled Entertainment; Peckham by Innovative Artists, Johnson and Laird Management, and Atlas Artists; Schmidt by Innovative Artists, Greenlight Management, and Peikoff Mahan; Verbeek by Favor Talents and Agence Adequat; and Pietschmann by Talent Republic Agency, AS Talents, Do MGMT and The Way.