Paramount Pictures, GK Films and New Regency today announced that Brad Pitt will star, and Robert Zemeckis (Flight, Forrest Gump) will direct, an original story by Steven Knight (The Hundred-Foot Journey, Dirty Pretty Things) to be produced by Graham King (Rango, The Departed), who developed the project, alongside Zemeckis and Steve Starkey (Flight, Real Steel).

The epic story will be produced through King's GK Films banner with Jack Rapke (Flight, Real Steel), Knight, Patrick McCormick (Black Mass) and Denis O'Sullivan (The 5th Wave, The Young Victoria) serving as executive producers.

Zemeckis credits at Paramount Pictures include the 1994 blockbuster Forrest Gump, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Director. The groundbreaking film grossed $677 million worldwide and won six Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor for star Tom Hankss. In 2012, the studio and Zemeckis partnered on the critically-lauded, live-action thriller Flight, which starred Denzel Washington and received two Academy Award nominations. Presently, Zemeckis is in post-production on The Walk, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, slated for an October 2015 release.

King and Knight are also partnered on the action-thriller The Red Circle a remake of the classic French film Le cercle rouge reset in Hong Kong. Knight wrote the script and King is producing under GK Films.