EXCLUSIVE: Netflix is taking on the story of Irish explorer Ernest Shackleton and the harrowing rescue of the crew of The Endurance when the ship he captained got encased in ice in the Antarctic and sank. Phil Barantini, who’s coming off the celebrated Netflix limited series Adolescence, will direct the film from a script by Mark L. Smith, who wrote the lauded survival tale The Revenant.
The film will be produced by Cliff Roberts, Smith, Michael Pruss, Joey McFarland, Brian Oliver, Samantha Beddoe and Barantini.
This puts Netflix back in the event historical picture business even after it stuck a pin in the film on Hannibal, the Carthaginian general who attacked Rome atop elephants, with Denzel Washington starring and Antoine Fuqua directing. That film stalled in preproduction over budget.
Shackleton is no less daunting a logistical task, but an opportunity for Netflix to cement Barantini as a cornerstone director. He followed Adolescence with Rabbit, Rabbit, an upcoming series that stars Adam Driver and Regina Hall. Netflix hopes to lock him into an overall deal.
Barantini sparked to an original script by Smith, whose The Revenant won Oscars for Leonardo DiCaprio and Alejandro González Iñárritu, and who followed that with film and TV including The Boys in the Boat; The Marsh King’s Daughter; and the upcoming Ridley Scott-directed post apocalyptic thriller The Dog Stars with Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley and Josh Brolin.
The Shackleton story has been attempted as a feature a few times, including one where the late director Wolfgang Petersen tried to make it and eyed Mel Gibson or Russell Crowe in the role. No sense at this point who Barantini wants, but there’s got to be a part near the top of the call sheet for Stephen Graham, his cohort on Adolescence, who also starred in Barantini’s first movie Boiling Point.
The Ireland-born Shackleton was well known for his death-defying attempts to sail furthest to the South Pole. That led to the 1914 Trans-Antarctic Expedition aboard The Endurance, and the harrowing lifeboat journey to bring rescue to a crew that was stranded when the ship was crushed by ice. Waiting and hoping was a crew that abandoned the ship and was forced to survive for months on ice floes. Shackleton managed to get the crew home in entirety, not suffering a single fatality.
The hope is to get this into production next year. Barantini is in high demand; among other projects he is percolating is a an updated take on The Getaway, which he’s working on with Rabbit, Rabbit’s Peter Craig, and an adaptation of the documentary The Hell Jumper with Matt Orton adapting.
Barantini is repped by CAA, Untitled and Independent Talent Group, while Smith is with CAA and Syndicate Entertainment.
