The unbeaten son of Galileo may be about to become immortalised in a film with nonother than Jeremy Irons playing legendary horse trainer Sir Henry Cecil.
WaZabi Films co-founders Anick Poirier and Lorne Price have added this latest title to their list and will launch pre-sale at AFM [American Film Market] at the beginning of November in Santa Monica, California, which sees more than 7,000 attend the eight-day annual event to network and to sell, finance and acquire films.
Oscar-winning Irons who took the gong for Best Actor in his role Reversal Of Fortune, a 1990 film adaptation of the 1985 book Reversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bulow Case, will also help produce the film with Andrew Berg and John Sachs of Eclipse Films.
Andrew Berg is still in the pre-production stage of Frankel. He has worked on a number of films including The Corrupted (2019), Finding Your Feet (2017), Urban Hymn (2015) and Stingray (2006).
John Sachs of Eclipse Films (Eclipse Global Entertainment) has worked on feature films such as Michael Radford's 2004 feature Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino.
Sachs' first feature as a producer was Michael Caton's Jone's Urban Hymn which picked up several awards including best film at Giffoni, Busan and TIFF.
Readers may remember Sachs' father, Andrew, who played Manuel in Fawlty Towers.
Frankel film will be directed by Ron Scalpello from a screenplay by Jim Piddock which charts Frankel's perfect unbeaten record of 14 straight wins culminating in the Champion Stakes at Ascot 2012.
Sir Henry Cecil passed away in June 2013.
Jeremy irons who is currently starring in the HBO hit Watchman said: ''The story of Henry resonated with me immediately. The role allows me to portray a character with such resilience and depth. I also appreciate the deep relationship shared between Henry and Frankel, a true story of love and affection between a man and his horse.”
Berg and Sachs added: “Jim Piddock’s script stands out as the perfect balance of drama and action and director Ron Scalpello is a gifted director, visceral, sensitive and extremely hard working and creative.
“Jeremy was first choice to play Henry and has a genuine love for horses. Jeremy’s decision to join us as a producer has further cemented his passion for this project.”
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