Woody Harrelson is set to star in the feature film adaptation of Joseph Kessel’s novel The Man With the Miraculous Hands: The Fantastic Story of Felix Kersten, Himmler’s Private Doctor.
The story is set in World War II and is described as a “psychological thriller.” Harrelson will take on the lead role as Felix Kersten, “a Finnish-born medical professional who was reluctantly pulled into the Third Reich’s corridors of power as Heinrich Himmler’s personal physician and prisoner.”
The film will tell Kersten’s remarkable true story as the physician “whose therapies helped to relieve Himmler’s debilitating abdominal pain, thereby giving him extraordinary influence over one of the main architects of the Holocaust. With clever manipulations, and a flair for dangerous negotiation with his monstrous patient, Kersten was able to ultimately save thousands of lives from the concentration camps and outlive his captor.”
Oren Moverman is set to write and direct the film which is being produced by Jerico Films. Moverman and Harrelson previously worked together on the film The Messenger.
The film is being produced by Eric Jehelmann, who said in a statement, “Even 70 years on after the end of the conflict, the Second World War still manages to reveal some of the most deeply moving untold stories of those who managed to triumph against adversity.” He went on to add that Kessel’s novel “sheds new light on the end of the war.”
The producer went on to say that Felix Kersten “really is the true definition of a modern-day hero, who manages to restore our hope in mankind while reviving in our minds the 20th century’s worst nightmare.”
Jehelmann also talked about the talent developing the film describing Harrelson and Moverman as “two jewels of American cinema” and said the pair will “help (them) create a moving, politically accurate and authentic film.”
Source: Variety