Baltasar Korm

Icelandic filmmaker lines up A-list ensemble.

Josh Brolin (‘Oldboy’), John Hawkes (‘The Sessions’), Jake Gyllenhaal (‘End of Watch’), and Aussie star Jason Clarke (‘Zero Dark Thirty’) are reportedly all set to join Baltasar Kormákur’s mountain climbing disaster feature ‘Everest.’

Set to begin principal photography in November, the drama is based on the disastrous events that took place during the Mount Everest climb in May 1996 when a sudden blinding storm hit the world’s tallest mountain, leaving eight climbers dead.

THR has Brolin portraying Beck Weathers, a doctor who has to endure a night exposed to the elements, with Gyllenhaal playing Scott Fischer, who is leading one of the three expeditions. Hawkes, would be playing a slow climber from Seattle who causes his expedition to be late in taking off, while Clarke would take the role of New Zealander Rob Hall, the leader of another expedition. Christian Bale had at one time been in talks for the role.

Universal Pictures, Working Title Films and Emmett/Furla Films will co-produce.