Oct. 4 (UPI) — HBO announced Monday that it has acquired the film The Survivor. The Survivor premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
Barry Levinson directed the adaptation of Alan Haft’s biography of his father, Harry Haft: Survivor of Asuchwitz, Challenger of Rocky Marciano. Ben Foster plays Harry Haft in the film.
Harry Haft was forced to box in the Auschwitz concentration camp. He escaped to New York, where he became a professional boxer and located the woman he was separated from during the Holocaust.
During his boxing career, Harry Haft faced Marciano in the ring. The USC Shoah Foundation assisted the production by providing historical resources. Those included testimony by Harry Haft in 2007 prior to his death that Nov.
Vicky Krieps, Billy Magnussen, Peter Sarsgaard, Saro Emirze, Dar Zuzovsky, Danny DeVito and John Leguizamo also star. Foster and DeVito are among the film’s executive producers.
Levinson previously directed the made for HBO films Paterno, The Wizard of Lies and You Don’t Know Jack. All were biopics on the subjects Joe Paterno, Bernie Madoff and Jack Kervorkian respectively.
HBO did not announce a premiere date for The Survivor.