Bridget Jones’s Diary star Colin Firth is to star in The Dead Wait for Beyond Films. Scheduled to start production early next year on location in South Africa, the project is to be directed by Russian Ark producer Jens Meurer, who directed 1999 Venice Black Panther documentary Public Enemy.

The film will tell the story of a man’s quest for retribution and is set in present day South Africa and against the bloody, clandestine Angolan War of 1983.

Sheryl Crown, the Oscar-nominated producer of Solomon & Gaenor, is producing, while the script is by Paul Herzberg. The title is set up as a co-production between Crown’s Rubicon Pictures in the UK, David Wicht of Film Afrika in South Africa and Egoli Tossell Films in Germany. The UK’s Mansfield Associates are executive producing. 

Firth sets forth on 'Dead Wait'
'Public Enemy' helmer Meurer to direct pic 
(Variety, May 20, 2003, by Don Groves)

Colin Firth is set to star in "The Dead Wait," a South Africa-set saga that spans the 20 years since the bloody Angolan war of 1983. Scripted by Paul Herzberg and helmed by Jens Meurer ("Public Enemy"), pic is due to roll in early 2004, with Sheryl Crown as producer.

Project was unveiled here by Beyond Films' head of sales and acquisitions Hilary Davis, who is fielding world rights. It's a co-prod between Crown's U.K.-based Rubicon Pictures, David Wicht of Film Afrika and Meurer's Egoli Tossell Films of Germany.

Firth will play a tough commanding officer in the South African army. Crown says casting is under way for the co-lead roles of a young recruit and a black character.

London-based Mansfield Associates is exec producing.