Brendan Fraser Will Play This WWII Legend in New D-Day Movie

Pressure, the new D-Day drama that details the most consequential weather forecast in military history, has found its Dwight Eisenhower. Brendan Fraser will play the American general who commanded the operation. Deadline reports that the movie will start filming in the UK this fall.

Pressure will star Ripley‘s Andrew Scott as James Stagg, the Chief Meteorological Officer of Britain; it was his responsibility to closely monitor the weather forecast for the beaches of Normandy, as inclement weather could spell disaster for the operation. With a small window to launch the invasion, and delays meaning that Germany’s network of spies would have more time to uncover the Allies’ secret plans, Stagg was under an enormous amount of pressure. Eisenhower had chosen June 5 for the invasion, but Stagg’s forecasts tell him that June 6 was the better date. With the deadline looming, Stagg must decide how to advise Eisenhower to proceed – knowing that the wrong decision could indefinitely prolong the war in Europe and cost thousands of lives. The film is adapted from David Haig‘s acclaimed play of the same name, and directed by Hotel Mumbai‘s Anthony Maras; Haig and Maras co-wrote the film’s script.

Who Was Dwight Eisenhower?

Growing up in Abilene, Kansas, Dwight Eisenhower (who often went by his childhood nickname, Ike) was a career Army officer. He rose up the ranks through World War II, defeating Axis forces in Northern Africa and Sicily before being appointed the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe. After the success of the D-Day landings in 1944, Eisenhower’s forces liberated France and marched into Germany, toppling the Third Reich in a massive pincer movement with Soviet forces attacking from the East. Following his victory in Europe, Eisenhower became an enormously popular figure in the United States, and easily won two terms as President, serving from 1953 to 1961. Eisenhower’s administration was marked by post-war prosperity, although the Vietnam War and the struggle for civil rights both began in earnest during his reign. As an American icon, Eisenhower has been portrayed on-screen a number of times, including by Robert Duvall in the miniseries Ike, Tom Selleck in the TV movie Ike: Countdown to D-Day, and Robin Williams in The Butler.

Coming off an acclaimed performance in Martin Scorsese‘s Killers of the Flower Moon, Fraser has a busy slate of upcoming performances. Later this year, he’ll star in the action comedy Brothers with Josh Brolin and Peter Dinklage; he is also slated to star in the Hikari dramedy Rental Family, and the action film Sacrifice, with Chris Evans and Anya Taylor-Joy.

What Other Movies Have Been Made About D-Day?

Operation Overlord, the military operation that sent nearly 160,000 Allied troops into Nazi-occupied France in a single day, happened eighty years ago this year, on June 6, 1944. That single day turned the tide of World War II and has been extensively chronicled on-screen, starting with a number of war propaganda films that were shot on the beaches of Normandy itself. 1962’s The Longest Daychronicled the invasion in epic fashion, and boasted an immense star-studded cast that included John Wayne, Robert Mitchum, Henry Fonda, and Sean Connery; it was an enormous success and was for a time the highest-grossing black-and-white film in history.

Steven Spielberg turned his eye on the invasion in 1998’s Saving Private Ryan, which opens with a bravura sequence of the operation from a grunt’s-eye view, capturing the shocking and visceral horrors of war in a way heretofore unseen by mainstream audiences. More recently, this year saw the release of Murder Company, a film about a ragtag force of Allied troops who journey from Normandy into France to assassinate a high-profile Nazi target.

Pressure is set to begin filming in the UK in September; no release date has yet been set. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.