Bobby Fischer

The chess film Pawn Sacrifice, which has been several years in development, is finally gaining some steam. The film will serve as a biopic of chess legend Bobby Fischer. Fischer will be played by Tobey Maguire (The Great Gatsby), who is also producing. It was recently announced that Pawn Sacrifice has added Liev Schreiber (Salt) and Peter Sarsgaard (Blue Jasmine) to the cast.

While Schreiber will play Soviet chess master Boris Spassky, who faced off against Fischer in 1972 for the World Championship, Sarsgaard will be the priest who became a close personal confidant for Fischer. It is unknown whether the film will include Fischer’s struggles later in life, including his U.S., citizenship troubles and offensive outbursts.

Pawn Sacrifice had attracted interest from David Fincher back in 2010, but the director chose to remake The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo instead. Edward Zwick (Glory) is now onboard to direct from the Steven Knight (Eastern Promises) script.

Pawn Sacrifice is set to begin filming in Montreal this October.