London 's Swipe Films has announced that Ewan McGregor will play the lead in their new indie comedy feature.

Jackboots On Whitehall is a WWII spoof that tells what could have happened had the Germans won the Battle of Britain but were ultimately defeated by the Scots. 'Ewan will play a heroic farmhand who leads the Scots into battle and victory, winning the heart of Rosamund Pike (Die Another Day and Pride And Prejudice),' said Director Edward McHenry.

Also confirmed for the project are Richard E Grant and Sanjeev Bhaskar, with Tim othy Spall as Churchill, Alan Cumming as Hitler, Tom Wilkinson as Goebbels, Richard O'Brien as Himmler and Richard Griffiths as Goering.

Jackboots is recent fine-arts graduate McHenry's feature film debut, which he co-wrote with his brother Rory McHenry. The script won the inaugural Swipe Films Screenplay Scholarship, a bursary set up by the independent production, sales and distribution company to encourage students to write scripts in their summer holidays.
The privately financed project has on board Irish producer Frank Mannion, co-producer Jamie English and executive producer Debbie McWilliams, who is also casting director. She recently cast Casino Royale and the previous six Bond movies.
Said Mannion, who is also managing director of Swipe: 'It seems appropriate on the 300th anniversary of the union between England and Scotland to be making a film that subverts and rewrites British history. This film seems particularly timely, especially given the speculation that the next Prime Minister will be Scottish combined with the success of the film The Last King of Scotland.

'Jackboots on Whitehall is one of the funniest scripts I have read with a delightful twist at the end,' he said. 'We are thrilled to be working with Ewan McGregor and, in a fellow Celt, we have found a kindred spirit for our anarchic rewriting of Scottish history. It is a tribute to the script's originality and to Edward McHenry's directorial vision that we have assembled such a starry British cast lending us their extraordinary vocal and comedic talents. It's Team America in style and tone but without strings attached! We are using specially made action figures, and purpose built models of Hadrian's Wall, Downing Street and Buckingham Palace. It's live action as opposed to animation or stop motion.'

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