Film4 and Element Pictures will fund the film and they have instilled their trust in Abrahamson, rightly so considering the impressive repertoire Abrahamson has to boast.
The film will be an adaptation of Neal Bascomb's book which has yet to be published. The Great Escape is set in WWI and revolves around three daredevil fighter pilots. The three are captured and held as Prisoners Of War at Holzminden, one of the most notorious camps in Germany. However, they go on to lead the greatest mass POW escape in July of 1918 and the narrative will follow their individual flights to freedom back to Britain via the Netherlands.
The accompanying book is to be published in May so the film is still waiting on assigning a scriptwriter to the project. Until the manuscript for The Great Escape is handed in there are a lot of details that have yet to be ironed out. This isn't the first time that Abrahamson has worked with Element Pictures as they supported his Oscar winning Room. Those 4 Oscar nods also accompany 8 IFTA awards that Room is in the running for.
If Abrahamson could bring Emma Donoghue's Room to life in such a beautiful and honest manner, we're sure that he will do Bascomb's book just as proud.