Matthias Schoenaerts starring in submarine disaster movie ‘Kursk’

Dave McNary/Variety
2 March 2016

Matthias Schoenaerts will star in EuropaCorp’s “Kursk” movie based on the K-141 Kursk submarine disaster, in which 118 Russians perished in 2000.

Luc Besson’s EuropaCorp hired Danish director Thomas Vinterberg in January to direct from a script by “Saving Private Ryan” screenwriter Robert Rodat, based on Robert Moore’s book “A Time to Die.”

“Kursk” reteams Schoenaerts with Vinterberg, who directed him in the 2015 adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s “Far From the Madding Crowd,” starring Carey Mulligan.

The Kursk sunk after explosions within the submarine during a Russian naval exercise in the Barents Sea. The Russian government refused help from foreign governments for five days before agreeing to aid from the British and Norwegian governments.

The Russian Navy initially asserted that the sinking had been caused by a collision with another vessel but the government eventually admitted that the cause was a torpedo explosion in the submarine.

The Belgium-born Schoenaerts most recently starred in “The Danish Girl,” with Eddie Redmayne and Oscar winner Alicia Vikander.

EuropaCorp is developing “Valerian” with Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne starring. Its upcoming slate includes “Shut In,” starring Naomi Watts; “Nine Lives,” starring Kevin Spacey and Jennifer Garner; and “The Lake,” starring Sullivan Stapleton and J.K. Simmons.