Russell Crowe, Rami Malek and Michael Shannon will lead James Vanderbilt’s historical drama Nuremberg, which is set in post-war Germany. The film will follow the Oscar-winner Malek as the American psychiatrist Douglas Kelley, who was tasked with deciding whether Nazi prisoners were fit to stand trial for their war crimes. He finds himself in a “complex battle of wits” with the Academy Award-winner Crowe’s character, Hermann Göring, who was described as Adolf Hitler’s right-hand man. Meanwhile, Shannon will play supreme court justice Robert H Jackson, the chief prosecutor of the Nuremberg trials. Vanderbilt, who made his directorial debut with the drama Truth starring Cate Blanchett, wrote the script based on the book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist by Jack El-Hai. The director, who will also co-produce the film, said: “What an absolute honour it is to be working with such a tremendously talented group of actors … I cannot wait to bring this amazing true story to the screen.” Filming will begin in February 2024 in Hungary, it was announced. The Les Miserables star Crowe won the Oscar for his role in 2000 film Gladiator, while Malek earned an Academy Award in 2019 for his role as Freddie Mercury in Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody and recently starred in Christopher Nolan’s historical epic Oppenheimer. Meanwhile the two-time Oscar nominee Shannon is best known for his work on Nocturnal Animals and Revolutionary Road.