On Monday the 20th of July shooting of Anthropoid began in Prague exteriors. The US-UK-Czech-French coproduction drama is named after the top secret WWII operation to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, the third most senior man in Hitler’s Third Reich. Jamie Dornan (Fifty Shades of Grey) and Cillian Murphy (Inception) will play the lead roles, as paratroopers Jan Kubiš and Josef Gabčík who carried out the “Operation Anthropoid” mission in May 1942. The Czech co-producer is Lucky Man Films.

Director Sean Ellis (Cashback, Metro Manila) says he has been interested in the subject for over 15 years. He has decided not to shoot an epic war drama but rather focus on the fate of the two protagonists. “I am interested in the story of Kubiš and Gabčík; I want to show what they felt,” Ellis told a press conference at this year’s Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where he introduced the movie together with Dornan, Czech co-producer David Ondříček and Czech actress Aňa Geislerová, who has been cast in a major role. The biggest challenge in terms of production was finding locations in Prague. Seventy years of constant reconstruction have changed the city a lot, and the actual spot where Heydrich’s assassination took place, on the infamous uphill curve in Bulovka, could not be used. The interior of the Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius, where the Gestapo tracks down the paratroopers, was also reconstructed in Barrandov studios – but mainly because of the scene where the secret police flood the cellars to drown the two resistance fighters. Other locations include Zvonařka and Invalidovna. The project has been allocated incentives from the State Cinematography Fund. The producers plan to spend about 6.4 million USD and therefore will receive a rebate of 1.5 million USD. Ludmila Claussová, the Head of the Czech Film Commission, says the movie will have an important impact on the domestic film industry. “The spend in the Czech Republic may be significant, but the shooting of the film is interesting for more reasons. It is not common to have international filmmakers work on a subject so tightly linked to our nation’s history. It will be interesting to watch how much their view will differ. The close connection with Prague will show the city in a different light to international audience, and the strong subject and period context also have great potential to attract history buffs,” Claussová says.