Ewan McGregor, famous for playing Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels, is set to star in a new movie by Doug Liman, who also directed Edge of Tomorrow. The film, fittingly titled Everest, centers on a crack team of mountain climbers in the 1920s as they tackle the world's highest mountain above sea level.
McGregor, who recently appeared as Black Mask in Birds of Prey, plays an adventurer who is summoned to scale the stiff slopes. He races against an Australian climber (played by Outlander star Sam Heughan) who seeks to show up at the summit first. Their competition soon gets rough as both men find themselves dominated by the unyielding potency of the Himalayas. Shazam! star Mark Strong has also been cast in the movie, playing the master of the Royal Geographic Society.
Liman, a Tom Cruise collaborator and self-described "climbing nut", is adapting his script from the novelPaths of Glory by Jeffrey Archer. The novel is not entirely fictional, as it tells the story of zesty real-life mountaineer George Mallory, who died while climbing Mt. Everest in 1924. Whether he reached the top is a contentious mystery among the climbing community, and Archer's book leaves it ambiguous. Liman has not revealed whether he will do the same in his film.
Production is scheduled to begin in early 2022, but a release date has not been announced yet. In the meantime, you can watch Liman's latest film: Chaos Walking, starring Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland.