Sir Michael Caine has been pictured embracing his new role as a war veteran as he worked on his latest movie in Camber Sands.
Caine, 89, was spotted preparing for scenes on the East Sussex Beach for The Great Escaper.
The veteran actor takes a starring role based on war veteran Bernard Jordan’s 2014 escape from a British care home to attend the 70th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings in Normandy, France.
Caine will be reunited with actress Glenda Jackson, 86, as Jordan's wife Irene, 47-years after they famously starred in director Joseph Losey's The Romantic Englishwoman.
Bernard Jordan’s story made headlines around the globe in 2014 when he staged a "great escape" from his care home to join fellow war veterans on a beach in Normandy, where they commemorated their fallen comrades.
He disappeared from The Pines care home in Hove, East Sussex, embarking on a cross-channel trip for the 70th anniversary of D-Day wearing his war medals underneath his grey mac.
Jordan's disappearance in June 2014 sparked a police search and his whereabouts was only uncovered when a younger veteran from Brighton phoned later that night to say he had met the veteran on a coach on the way to France, and that they were safe and well in a hotel in Ouistreham.
"It was a story that captured the imagination of the world – Bernie seemed to embody the defiant, 'can-do' spirit of a generation that was fast disappearing," The Great Escaper's official synopsis reads.
"But of course, it wasn’t the whole story. It was the story we all tell ourselves to make war and old age bearable. The bitter-sweet script explores the reality with wit and a very big heart."
The new film is being directed by the BAFTA nominated Oliver Parker from an original screenplay written by William Ivory, best known for his work on Made In Dagenham and Common As Muck.
On the project, Parker said: "No one can resist a script that makes people both laugh and cry – I loved Billy’s writing and the story itself, so inspirational and so moving, seemed to speak to our times and our need for heroes on a human scale, whether people like Bernard Jordan or our doctors and nurses.
"And now to have Michael and Glenda – two iconic actors – agree to honour this story with their brilliance, it’s the cherry on the cake!"
The film is expected to be released next year.
Caine has previously said the secret to his good health is the food he had to eat during the Second World War.
The Zulu star grew up in Bermondsey in South London and he believes the lack of sugar in his diet due to rationing and the amount of fish he had to eat taught him important lessons about food and nutrition which have lasted throughout his entire life.
Caine even learned how to catch rabbits and other animals when he was evacuated from London and into the countryside to escape the Nazi bombings.
Speaking in November, he said: “I was born in Bermondsey which is South London, but I’m a Cockney because I was born in a part of Bermondsey which is opposite Bow Bells, and if you’re born within the sound of Bow Bells you’re a Cockney.
“My memory of food is this, my father was a Billingsgate fish market porter and he was a big gambler so he never bought steak because it was too dear but he used to nick a lot of fish. So for 15 years I ate fish, every kind of fish you can imagine and I later realised it was a very healthy thing.
“Another accidental healthy thing for me was the Second World War, you couldn’t get any sugar you couldn’t get any of those drinks you have now with all this sugar in it.
“Then I was evacuated to the country away from the smog which in Bermondsey then was terrible because everyone had coal fires.
“I lived on a farm for six years. The food was wonderful. Some of the food I caught myself because I could outrun a rabbit, I used to catch a rabbit with a stick and give it to my mother to cook for dinner.
“Pheasant, partridge, I remember all those things. “Thinking back on it, health wise I was very lucky. And my mother insisted I ate porridge for breakfast for 15 years. We also had fresh vegetables because we lived on a farm so we would go and nick a cabbage.”
