Liddell regarded as a hero in China
Winston Churchill arranged prisoner swap for the Olympic star’s release from Japanese prison camp only to have Liddell turn it down so a pregnant inmate could gain freedom instead
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Winner of four Academy Awards, including a surprise Best Picture (1982), Chariots’ use of music (see YouTube below) helped revolutionize filmmaking
The much-loved British film Chariots of Fire about the Scottish runner and missionary Eric Liddell is getting a sequel thanks to his many fans in China.
Joseph Fiennes will play Liddell in a new movie filmed in China, co-written and directed by the Hong Kong director Stephen Shin with Canadian director Michael Parker. It will be distributed by the Hong Kong-based Alibaba Pictures, who this morning also announced that they are to back the fifth Mission Impossible film.
Chariots of Fire, which won four Oscars in 1982, starred Ian Charleson as Liddell, a devout Christian who had to choose between his sport and religious beliefs at the 1924 Paris Olympics. Months before the Olympics took place, Liddell had to drop his plans to enter his preferred 100m race because the heats took place on a Sunday. Instead, he trained for the 400m and succeeded in taking the gold medal for Great Britain.
Fiennes to play Scottish Olympic Gold Medal-winner and missionary to China
An Unexpected Hero
The Independent reports that the Chinese-born Liddell is regarded as a hero in China, partly for his sporting prowess but also for his actions in the Japanese internship camp where he died aged 43. Liddell was thought to have organised the smuggling of food in to prisoners.
Born in China to missionary parents, he returned to that country after his Olympic victory to continue his parents’ work. [Where the Japanese invasion resulted in his capture.]…
See also
The Brits aren’t coming! Unofficial Chariots of Fire sequel greenlit in China, in The Guardian
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