The studio said it will open the Jesse Owens film wide on April 8, 2016, and announced that William Hurt has joined the cast. Mister Smith handles international sales.

Hurt joins Jeremy Irons, Jason Sudeikis, Carice van Houten and rising star Stephan James.

Stephen Hopkins directs the $32m drama and is about to wrap the Berlin segment at the Olympic Stadium, the site of Owens’ quadruple gold medal haul in 1936 that defied Adolf Hitler’s vision of Aryan supremacy at the Games.

Hurt will portray Jeremiah Mahoney, president of the Amateur Athletic Union, who led efforts to boycott the 1936 Olympics. Anna Waterhouse and Joe Shrapnel wrote the screenplay.

Jean Charles Lévy produces for Forecast Pictures with sports entrepreneur Luc Dayan for ID+, Kate Garwood and Hopkins for Totally Commercial Films, Louis-Philippe Rochon and Dominique Séguin for Canada’s Solofilms and Karsten Brünig and Thierry Potok for Germany’s Trinity Race GmbH.

Executive producers include Christopher Charlier, Ben Grass, Scott Kennedy, Bonnie Timmermann, George Acogny, Nicolas Manuel, Jonathan Bronfman and Al Munteanu.

Square One, which will distribute the film in Germany, is a co-producer, while eOne will release in Canada.

The project has the support of the Owens family, the Jesse Owens Foundation, the Jesse Owens Trust and the Luminary Group.

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