Tom Hardy is set to star in a new film about Ernest Shackleton, the polar explorer famous for his remarkable escape from the Antarctic continent with all his crew despite losing his ship when it was crushed by ice.

Deadline reports that the movie, the filming of which presents many logistical problems, has received financing and appointed a scriptwriter.



The story of the ill-fated journey of the Endurance has been told on screen before, most famously by Kenneth Branagh in a TV film for Channel 4 in a production the Guardian described as “inadvertently hilarious”.

Back to the cold … Tom Hardy in The Revenant. Photograph: Allstar/20th Century Fox

In 1914, two years after Roald Amundsen had become the first person to reach the south pole, Shackleton led an expedition attempting to cross the continent. However, early on in the voyage the party’s ship, the Endurance, became trapped in an ice floe.

The crew waited for nine months, hoping that when spring came the boat would be freed, but it became clear that it had suffered too much damage and they were forced to abandon it.

Then followed two dangerous sea journeys in the lifeboats rescued from the Endurance, first to the barren Elephant Island and then, leaving most of his men behind, the journey of 720 nautical miles to South Georgia.

Against the odds, Shackleton and his team made the journey successfully and were able to send help to rescue the rest of the men still trapped in Antarctica. Astonishingly, the entire crew of the Endurance survived and were welcomed back as heroes.

No release date has yet been set for the film, which will be produced by StudioCanal.