Wales plays Falklands in Simon Weston film
A new feature film following the life of Falklands War soldier Simon Weston is set to double Wales for the remote South Atlantic island landscape.
As first reported by Screen, the story centres on British army veteran Weston who was horrifically burned when the ship he was on, RFA Sir Galahad, was bombed and set alight by Argentinian Skyhawk fighters during the Bluff Cove air attacks in June 1982. Weston’s regiment, The Welsh Guards, lost 48 men with nearly 100 wounded.
The Welshman suffered 46% burns, and went on to face years of reconstructive surgery including around 70 operations. He became one of the most lauded and recognisable icons of the conflict, and has since been a vocal campaigner and supporter of troops and veterans’ causes.
Salon Pictures, run by producers Nick Taussig and Paul Van Carter, have the rights to Weston’s autobiographies, and will head up the as-yet-untitled feature when it shoots in Wales next spring.
The Railway Man director Jonathan Teplitzky will be calling the shots from a screenplay by Alex Von Tunzelmann, who recently collaborated with Salon on its period biopic, Churchill, starring Brian Cox.
Wales has a sturdy history as a major production hub, with its burgeoning profile further raised with the opening of a Pinewood facility and the renaissance of the once-defunct Dragon Studios, currently home to TNT’s major new drama, Will.
The country has recently hosted the TV adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall starring Jack Whitehall, and pre-production is currently underway in Cardiff on TV thriller Born to Kill.
For more on feature films and high-end TV dramas heading to shoot in Wales, log into Production Intelligence. Non-subscribers can click here for a demo.
Simon Weston photo via Getty Images/WireImage/Mike Marsland.
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