Young British actor Jeremy Irvine, who is currently the lead in Steven Spielberg’s movie “War Horse”, has been cast to play the lead in “The Railway Man”, a true story from World War 2.

According to THR, Irvine will play the role of Eric Lomax, a man tortured and forced to work on the “Death Railway” in Japan during the war, after being held captive for being a British spy.

It’s based on the acclaimed novel by real-life Eric Lomax, who after the war tracked down one of the men who tortured him and wrote a memoir.

A doco about this story was made back in 1995 (called “Enemy, My Friend”) but this will be the first tima a drama makes it to the big screen.

It’ll be directed by Jonathan Teplitzky (“Burning Man”) and also star Colin Firth as the older Eric.

While Irvine’s other big-budget flick “War Horse” hits cinemas at the end of this year, so we can then judge him before this comes out!