House Productions Adapting Auschwitz Book The Volunteer

House Productions, the U.K.-based indie founded by Tessa Ross and Juliette Howell, has secured the international film and television rights to the critically acclaimed biography and newly announced Costa Book of the Year, The Volunteer.

Former war reporter Jack Fairweather’s biography is the untold true story of Witold Pilecki, a covert operative who volunteered to be captured and taken to deadly new Nazi detention center, Auschwitz, in order to infiltrate the camp, organize a resistance from within, gather evidence of the atrocities being committed against thousands of European Jews and ultimately attack the Nazi forces from where they’d least expect. However, Pilecki’s incredible and heroic story would later be wiped from the annals of history by Poland’s communist government and the man himself branded a traitor and enemy of the state.

Fairweather’s searing account of a brave war hero’s mission, which pieces together firsthand accounts from survivors, unique access to unpublished diaries and newly released archival documents, won the Costa Biography Book of the Year Award in early January 2020 and was recently announced as the overall winner of the Costa Prize, Book of the Year.

House Productions, the team behind 2019’s Emmy-nominated drama Brexit—The Uncivil War starring Benedict Cumberbatch, has secured a multi-territory deal for the film rights to The Volunteer, in their financing partnership with Access Entertainment, which will see Ross and Howell develop the project. The publishers are WH Allen/Penguin Random House UK and Custom House/Harper Collins in the U.S.

Ross, co-CEO of House Productions, said: “Jack’s book is an astonishing account of a vital story that demands to be told. Witold Pilecki’s heroism was remarkable and it is a great honor to be entrusted with this book so we can share his story.”

Fairweather added: “I’m delighted that Witold Pilecki’s inspirational story of defiance in the face of man’s greatest evil has found a filmmaker of Tessa’s power and vision. In her hands, this once unsung hero will reach the audience he deserves.”