WME Independent has boarded the previously announced historical thriller Nuremberg starring Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, and Michael Shannon and will launch worldwide sales in Cannes.

James Vanderbilt is directing and production is underway in Hungary with a cast that includes Richard E. Grant, Leo Woodall, John Slattery, Mark O’Brien, Colin Hanks, Lydia Peckham, Wrenn Schmidt, Lotte Verbeek, and Andreas Pietschmann.

Nick Meyer’s Sierra Pictures is consulting on the sales and distribution of the film. Meyer and WME Independent co-head Alex Walton worked together at Paramount Vantage.

In Nuremberg, Malek will play American psychiatrist Douglas Kelley, tasked with assessing the fitness of Nazi prisoners to participate in the Nuremberg trials, which took place in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Kelley finds himself in a battle of wits with Hermann Göring (Crowe), one of the most senior Nazis. Shannon will play Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, the chief prosecutor of at the trials.

Vanderbilt adapted the screenplay based on Jack El-Hai’s book The Nazi And The Psychiatrist.

Bluestone Entertainment, Walden Media, and Széchenyi Funds acquired the rights to El-Hai’s book and Vanderbilit’s screenplay, and are financing the project.

Richard Saperstein, William Sherak, Vanderbilt, Brad Fischer, Istvan Major, and Paul Neinstein are producing, along with production company Filmsquad.

Walden’s Frank Smith, Ben Tappan, and Cher Hawrysh will serve as executive producers, as well as Annie Saperstein, Brooke Saperstein, Beau Turpin, Nikolett Barabas and Béla Hajnal. The project was previously in development at Vanderbilt, Sherak, and Fischer’s Mythology Entertainment.