The first images of Sir Anthony Hopkins as Sir Nicholas Winton have been revealed, showing the actor portraying the humanitarian who saved 669 children from the Nazis.
Oscar winner Sir Anthony, 84, will star in One Life, which tells the extraordinary story of how Sir Nicholas rescued 669 children from Czechoslovakia and brought them to Britain on eight trains he arranged in 1938-39.
Filmmakers are recreating the memorable scenes when Esther Rantzen reunited the banker with some of the refugees whose lived he saved in tearful scenes during a 1988 episode of That’s Life.
Unbeknownst to Sir Nicholas, the audience was also made up of the children or grandchildren of the people he saved, who were mostly Jewish children.
One of them was Vera Diamant, who was 10 when her parents had arranged for her and an older sister to start a new life in Britain.
She previously said: “He is the father of the biggest family in the world.
“The 669 children Nicky Winton saved have had children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. That means there are well over 5,000 of us alive today.”
In 2003, Winton received the Pride of Britain Award for Lifetime Achievement, when the humble hero said: “To perform an act of goodness you have to be given the opportunity – and luckily I was.”
He fundraised more than £1million in his lifetime.
For the upcoming film, Pinner in Harrow was transformed into a recreation of the 1980s event, with Sir Anthony - who was reportedly keen to star as the incredible World War II hero to highlight the plight of Ukranian refugees - filming alongside Lena Olin.
Actor Johnny Flynn, who played David Bowie in Stardust, will play the younger Winton, who was 29 in 1938.
Sir Nicholas died in 2015 at the age of 106.
