EXCLUSIVE: Cameras are rolling on Epic — The Life & Times of David Lean, with Assemble Media boarding the documentary.
The Sky Arts feature comes from director Barnaby Thompson (Mad About the Boy — The Noel Coward Story), with Embankment Films and Fragile Films now joined by Assemble’s Jack Heller (Moviepass, Moviecrash) on the production and financing.
Assemble’s Caitlin de Lisser-Ellen as an executive producer. Embankment’s Nick Taussig is the producer, with the company behind The Father and The Wife also shopping the doc internationally.
A spring 2026 theatrical release date has been slated in the UK, with Sky Arts transmitting it over the summer. We first reported on the project in September last year.
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“I’m thrilled to join Barnaby and Nick on this journey,” said Heller, founder of Assemble. “With IMAX and large-format filmmaking shaping the future of cinema, there’s no better time to explore the life of the man who redefined epic filmmaking and laid the groundwork for it.”
The film looks into the life of British director David Lean, whose films included Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago and A Bridge of the River Kwai. Through collaboration with the British Film Institute National Archive, which holds a trove of David Lean documents in its Special Collections vault, the film contains never-before-seen archive and contributors from leading film directors.
Per the synopsis: “Haunted by the shadow of his dismissive father and his puritan upbringing, David Lean made some of the most beautiful and successful films of all time. Married six times, he created layered and complex narratives in his work, while struggling to find connection and meaning in his personal life. He defined the epic, and it was through his work that he found meaning, purpose and contentment. It was as if he lived for his films and nothing else.”
“The epic quality and power of David Lean’s films define the cinematic canvass on which all other great films are measured,” said Jack Oliver, Head of Co-Productions at Sky. “The opportunity to indulge in the beauty of Lean’s films and explore the complexity of the man is hugely appealing in the vision Barnaby Thompson shared about the project. Sky is excited by the opportunity of working again with Embankment films, we share the same ethos and ambition in cinematic feature documentaries of iconic figures and getting the story behind the story.”
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