“Chips” Harvey to write ‘The English Warrior’ for Swiss-US outfit Jovera Pictures

EXCLUSIVE:  Johannes Boesiger’s Swiss-UK financing and production house Jovera Pictures is teaming with Egor Olesov’s United Heroes Group, for the screen adaptation of former British army soldier Shaun Pinner’s 2024 international bestseller ’Live.Fight. Survive’.

The screenplay has been written by Edward John “Chips” Hardy, who worked as a co-creator, writer and consulting producer with his actor son Tom Hardy on the BBC drama series Taboo.

“Our plan is to cast a well-known UK action star in the lead role,” said Jovera’s Rainer Grupe, the former vice president of film at eOne, who recently joined the Jovera team.

Pinner joined the Ukrainian military in 2018 when the country was rebuilding its armed forces following Russia’s annexation of Crimea. He was deployed to the front when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and spent six months as a prisoner of war after the siege of Mariupol before being released in September 2022.

Jovera is now in post on the English-language, music-driven drama Fly Little Bird,  directed by Boesiger, which was shot on location in the Middle East, India and London The company is now is developing a coming-of-age tale called Scream, Boy! and is planning a move into TV production.

“We have already secured the remake rights for an untitled TV series based on a feature film from the early 1990s, focusing on a lost generation,” Grupe revealed.

• Berlin Film Festival 2026: Screen’s dailies