EXCLUSIVE: Gerard Butler has been set to star in Dynamo, a true story based on the novel Dynamo: Defending The Honour Of Kiev by Andy Dougan. Eli Richbourg adapted the screenplay. Riviera Pictures, Beau Flynn of FlynnPictureCo., and Jeremy Garelick will produce. Pathé co-developed and will co-produce and distribute the film worldwide. Talks with possible directors are underway.

Dynamo is based on the landmark soccer game that took place between an occupied Ukrainian soccer team and their Nazi captors during World War II. Butler will star as Nikolai Trusevich, the all-star goalie who served as a cornerstone and leader for his team, and ultimately inspired the entire battered city of Kiev, Ukraine. To stem a rising tide of resistance and establish Aryan superiority, the Nazi’s set up a match pitting the starving Ukrainians against a ‘super team’ of German players that to this day is still known as “The Death Match”. Dynamo will shoot in Europe in 2013.