Sony Pictures Classics Acquires North American Rights to ‘Nuremberg’ with Russell Crowe and Rami Malek, Sets November Release
Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired North American and worldwide airline rights to James Vanderbilt’s Nuremberg from Walden Media and Bluestone Entertainment.
The film, written and directed by Vanderbilt and produced by Walden Media, Bluestone Entertainment and Mythology Entertainment, is a thrilling drama set in post-war Germany based on the book “The Nazi and the Psychiatrist” by Jack El-Hai.
Nuremberg stars Academy Award winner Russell Crowe (Gladiator), Academy Award winner Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody), and Academy Award nominees Michael Shannon (Nocturnal Animals, Revolutionary Road) and Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) The film also stars Leo Woodall (Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, Netflix’s One Day), John Slattery (Mad Men, Spotlight), Mark O’Brien (Ready or Not, Arrival), Colin Hanks (FX’s Fargo, King Kong), Lydia Peckham (Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes), Wrenn Schmidt (Apple’s For All Mankind), Lotte Verbeek (Starz’ Outlander), and Andreas Pietschmann (Dark, 1899). The film will be released in theaters nationwide on November 7, 2025, ahead of the 80th anniversary of the Trials.
Nuremberg chronicles the true story of the eponymous trials held by the Allies against the defeated Nazi regime. The film centers on American psychiatrist Douglas Kelley (Malek), who is tasked with determining whether Nazi prisoners are fit to stand trial for their war crimes and finds himself in a complex battle of wits with Hermann Göring (Crowe), Hitler’s right-hand man.
The film is produced by Richard Saperstein, Bradley J. Fischer, James Vanderbilt, William Sherak, and Walden Media’s Frank Smith, Benjamin Tappan, and Cherilyn Hawrysh, along with István Major of Filmsquad and George Freeman. Executive producers include Jack El-Hai, Brooke Saperstein, Annie Saperstein, Beau Turpin, W. Porter Payne, Jr., Paul Neinstein, and Széchenyi Funds Géza Deme and Tamás Hajnal.
The Academy Award-winning and nominated below the line crew’s includes: Director of Photography Dariusz Wolski (The Crow, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Martian), Production Designer Eve Stewart (The Danish Girl, Les Miséables, The King’s Speech), Costume Designer Bartholomew Cariss (Churchill), Hair/Make-Up designer Jan Sewell (Bohemian Rhapsody, The Theory of Everything, Tetris), Editor Tom Eagles (Jojo Rabbit) and Casting Director John Papsidera (Oppenheimer, Yellowstone).
“I am beyond thrilled to be reuniting with Michael and Tom and the whole Sony Pictures Classics team, who ten years ago took a chance on me as a first-time director, and whose legacy of championing great films makes them an incredible partner,” said writer-director James Vanderbilt. “Nuremberg explores the fragile boundary between justice and vengeance in the aftermath of unimaginable atrocity. As we approach the 80th anniversary of this unprecedented moment in history, this story feels more urgent than ever, and I can’t wait for audiences to see it on the big screen.”
“Written and directed by James Vanderbilt, Nuremberg is a major work, a riveting subject, even more relevant today, that will speak to audiences of all ages. Russell Crowe, Michael Shannon, Rami Malek, and Leo Woodall are all at their career best here. Nuremberg will be a standout in theaters this Fall,” added Sony Pictures Classics.
James Vanderbilt previously wrote and directed Truth, starring Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford. He also wrote Zodiac for David Fincher for which he was nominated for a WGA award. He has written and produced over 20 films.
The film is financed by Bluestone Entertainment, Walden Media, and Széchenyi Funds (Budapest, Hungary). Mythology Entertainment developed the project for over a decade after first acquiring the underlying rights to El-Hai’s original article and book in 2011. WME Independent represented the worldwide rights to the film and negotiated the deal with Sony Pictures Classics on behalf of the filmmakers.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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