Woody Harrelson to Star in WWII Psychological Thriller

Hollywoodreporter.com: Woody Harrelson is set to play the real-life physician of Heinrich Himmler — known as one of the main architects of the Holocaust — in WWII psychological thriller The Man with the Miraculous Hands.

Oren Moverman will direct the feature, based on Joseph Kessel's novel The Man with the Miraculous Hands: The Fantastic Story of Felix Kersten, Himmler’s Private Doctor, reuniting with Harrelson for a third time after Rampart and The Messenger

The film comes from Jerico Films, a division of the Vendôme Group production banner, and will be produced by Eric Jehelmann and Philippe Rousselet with Fabrice Gianfermi and Jeremy Plager serving as executive producers.

Kersten was a Finnish-born medical professional who was reluctantly pulled into the Third Reich's corridors of power as Himmler's personal physician and prisoner. His therapies helped relieve Himmler's debilitating abdominal pain, thereby giving him extraordinary influence over one of the most powerful members of the Nazi Party and the head of the SS.

With clever manipulations and a flair for dangerous negotiation with his monstrous patient, Kersten was able to ultimately save thousands of lives from the concentration camps and outlive his captor.

"Even 70 years on after the end of the conflict, the Second World War still manages to reveal some of the most deeply moving untold stories of those who managed to triumph against adversity," said Jehelmann.

"The revelations in his novel allow us to shed new light on the end of the war and gain a better understanding of how one could imagine a future world whilst not only managing to save his own life but through his courage, managed to save the lives of thousands of others."