Toby Kebbell joins Mark Gordon’s Sand Castle, which heads to Cannes before planned October shoot

Umedia is to finance, executive produce and handle international sales on Iraq war drama Sand Castle, set to star Nicholas Hoult (Warm Bodies) and Toby Kebbell (Wrath of the Titans).

Iraq war veteran Chris Roessner’s Black List script is based on real events experienced by a platoon sent to repair an aqueduct in the dangerous and remote village of Baqubah, Iraq.

Mark Gordon (Source Code, Saving Private Ryan) is producing the feature from commercials and shorts director Seb Edwards, who is set to make his feature debut.

Hoult is set to play a young machine gunner, while Kebbell has been tapped for the role of Sgt. Baker, the Platoon leader who must keep his men sane in the face of mounting casualties.

The project is scheduled to shoot in October 2014 in South Africa and Italy.

CAA arranged financing for the film and is repping North American rights on behalf of the producer and filmmaker.

Hoult is repped by UTA in the US and 42 in the UK, Kebbell by CAA, Roessner by CAA, Management 360, and Ziffren Brittenham and Edwards by CAA and Bloom Hergott Diemer Rosenthal LaViolette Feldman Schenkman & Goodman in the US and Independent Talent in the UK.

Adrian Politowski, CEO of Umedia, said: “Sand Castle is an amazing and gripping story transcending the genre into a powerful coming-of-age tale.

“Combining that quality with Mark Gordon producing, Seb directing and Nicholas Hoult starring, as well as our production partners working with the Umedia teams, this will yield an outstanding and important film.”

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