Farrell and Harris 'to join Way Back'

Colin Farrell and Ed Harris are in final discussions to join the cast of Peter Weir's wartime drama The Way Back.

Based on the memoirs of Slavomir Rawicz, the movie tells the story of a group of soldiers who attempt to escape from a Siberian gulag in 1942.

According to Variety, Farrell will play a Russian in the movie, which is scheduled to start shooting in Bulgaria in March.

Ed Harris is to play an American, while Jim Sturgess and 14-year-old Atonement actress Saoirse Ronan will portray a Polish inmate and a Russian respectively.

Harris directed and starred in the 2008 western Appaloosa, while Jim Sturgess recently starred alongside Kevin Spacey in 21.

Elsewhere, Farrell and Brendan Gleeson have both been nominated in this year's Irish Film & Television Awards – the equivalent of the UK's Baftas – for their roles in last year's In Bruges.

They face competition from Dylan Moran who is in the running for his starring role in the dark comedy movie A Film With Me In It.

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