tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

The cast is headed by Channing Tatum (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, the upcoming Dear John), Jamie Bell (Defiance, Jumper), two-time Golden Globe Award winner Donald Sutherland, and Mark Strong (the upcoming Sherlock Holmes and Robin Hood). Mr. Macdonald is reunited on the new film with Jeremy Brock, BAFTA Award-winning screenwriter of his 2006 film The Last King of Scotland, who has adapted the screenplay of The Eagle of the Ninth from Rosemary Sutcliff's classic novel of the same name.

Duncan Kenworthy, an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award nominee for Four Weddings and a Funeral, developed and is producing The Eagle of the Ninth through his Toledo Productions. Caroline Hewitt is co-producer. Focus senior vice president, European production Teresa Moneo - who with Focus Features International president of sales and distribution Alison Thompson brought the project into the company - is supervising the film's production with Film4 head Tessa Ross.

The Eagle of the Ninth is set in the dangerous world of second-century Britain. In 140 AD, twenty years after the unexplained disappearance of the entire Ninth Legion in the mountains of Scotland, young centurion Marcus Aquila (played by Mr. Tatum) arrives from Rome to solve the mystery and restore the reputation of his father, the commander of the Ninth. Accompanied only by his British slave Esca (Mr. Bell), Marcus sets out across Hadrian's Wall into the uncharted highlands of Caledonia - to confront its savage tribes, make peace with his father's memory, and retrieve the lost legion's golden emblem, the Eagle of the Ninth. Mr. Sutherland portrays Marcus' uncle Aquila, who has retired in Britain; Mr. Strong is cast as Guern, an ex-soldier who holds crucial information about the Ninth.

Anthony Dod Mantle, who won the Academy Award earlier this year for his cinematography of Slumdog Millionaire, is director of photography on The Eagle of the Ninth. 2009 Academy Award winner Michael O'Connor and Academy Award nominee

Michael Carlin (both of The Duchess) are the film's costume and production designers, respectively. Justine Wright will edit The Eagle of the Ninth, marking her fifth consecutive feature collaboration with Mr. Macdonald.

"All of us at Focus are thrilled to be once again collaborating with our colleagues at Film4 - their support for the most exciting voices in British filmmaking is unparalleled," said Focus CEO James Schamus.

Film4 head Tessa Ross added, "We're incredibly excited to be working again with the wonderful Kevin Macdonald and his brilliant collaborators on this great project - Duncan, Jeremy, and our colleagues at Focus."

In addition to The Last King of Scotland, for which Forest Whitaker won the Best Actor Academy Award, Mr. Macdonald's films as director include One Day in September, which won him the Best Documentary Feature Oscar; the mountain-climbing thriller Touching the Void; and, most recently, State of Play, starring Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck.

Duncan Kenworthy has produced three of the most successful British films of all time: Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Love Actually. Together, they have grossed nearly $900 million at the worldwide boxoffice. He has been nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award and three Golden Globe Awards, and has won five BAFTA Awards and three Emmy Awards. He was made an O.B.E. in 1999 for services to film, and is vice president of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). In 2004, he created the Toledo Scholarships at the National Film and Television School for British ethnic minority students; there have been eight Toledo Scholars so far.

Film4, headed by Tessa Ross, is Channel 4 Television's feature film division. The Company develops and co-finances film productions and is known for working with the most innovative talent in the U.K., whether new or established. Film4 was a financier of Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, which won 8 Academy Awards earlier this year. Film4 partnered with Focus on Martin McDonagh's In Bruges, for which star Colin Farrell won a Golden Globe Award. It also backed Steve McQueen's Hunger, winner of, amongst other awards, the 2008 Cannes International Film Festival's Camera d'Or; and Mike Leigh's Oscar-nominated Happy-Go-Lucky, for which star Sally Hawkins won a Golden Globe Award.

Film4's most recent releases include Ken Loach's Looking for Eric and Michael Winterbottom's Genova. Upcoming Film4 projects include Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones; Paul King's Bunny and the Bull; Sam Taylor Wood's Nowhere Boy; Mark Romanek's Never Let Me Go; Xiaolu Guo's She, A Chinese, which won the Golden Leopard at the 2009 Locarno Film Festival; and, with Focus Features International, and the UK Film Council's Premiere Fund, Mike Leigh's new film.