‘Fifty Shades of Grey’ Star Jamie Dornan Will Dominate Some Nazis in ‘Anthropoid’

Chances are, if you weren’t familiar with Jamie Dornan before Fifty Shades of Grey, you were left with a deeply unimpressed feeling about the actor and his performance in that film. But if you’re a fan of his work on the UK series The Fall, you know he’s got some serious chops when given the right material. And it seems like his next project has the potential to provide the right material, pairing him with Cillian Murphy in a WWII thriller.

THR reports that Dornan has joined Murphy in Anthropoid, the curiously-titled new thriller from Sean Ellis, who previously won an Oscar for his live-action short film Cashback. Based on a screenplay by Anthony Frewin, Anthropoid centers on British-trained Czech soldiers Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš, who were sent to Prague in 1942 to assassinate Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich, also known as “The Hangman.”

This is the fifth time this particular true story has been adapted for the big screen—previous efforts include 1943's Hangmen Also Die and 1975's Operation Daybreak. The title Anthropoid comes from the name given to the classified mission, Operation Anthropoid, which sent the brave Czech soldiers into Prague to take out Heydrich. The ruthless SS leader was integral to the rise of Adolf Hitler, and was given a huge amount of control over the Final Solution and the Holocaust.

Dornan has been rather busy following his breakout role in The Fall: up next, he appears in the thriller The 9th Life of Louis Drax, and he’s slated to star opposite Bradley Cooper in an untitled restaurateur project. And he’s scheduled to reprise the role of Christian Grey for two Fifty Shades of Grey sequels, of course.