Lionsgate UK has picked up rights to Sam Claflin war drama Journey’s End from Metro International.

The Hunger Games and Me Before You star Claflin plays the lead role in the adaptation of R.C. Sherriff’s 1928 classic stage play about trench warfare.

Co-starring are Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind), Stephen Graham (Boardwalk Empire) Asa Butterfield (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children), Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and Tom Sturridge (Far From the Madding Crowd). Saul Dibb (The Duchess) directs.

Natalie Brenner, Metro International head of sales, negotiated the deal with Nick Manzi, head of production and acquisitions, Lionsgate UK.

The film, currently in post-production, is adapted for the screen by Simon Reade (Private Peaceful).

In Journey’s End, 18-year-old new recruit Lieutenant Raleigh (Butterfield) has pulled strings to join his childhood friend and hero Captain Stanhope (Claflin) on the front line. However, Stanhope is horrified by Raleigh’s arrival into the tension and claustrophobia of the officers’ dugout where they are anticipating a massive German advance. Stanhope has been altered almost beyond recognition by three years of war, kept going only by the thought that when the war is over he can return to his love – Raleigh’s sister Margaret.

Zygi Kamasa, CEO of Lionsgate’s European office, said: “Adding Journey’s End to our slate continues our robust investment into diverse and quality British films. British cinema continues to thrive and we’re very happy to be able to bring quality product such as this to cinema-goers.”

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Actor Sam Claflin experiences the hell and horror of war in two stunning new films.

Claflin and Gemma Arterton employ clipped diction and understated glances in Their Finest (which opens here on April 21): a stirring romantic comedy about an introspective producer (Claflin) running the government’s propaganda film unit in World War II. He hires a woman (Arterton) to create scripts and story ideas to help boost the war effort at home.

The movie, directed by Lone Scherfig, has priceless supporting performances by Bill Nighy, Rachael Stirling and Helen McCrory.

And Claflin recently completed work on Saul Dibb’s powerful screen version of R. C . Sherriff ’s play Journey’s End: a portrait of what it was like for a British unit in the trenches.

The 30-year-old actor plays Captain Stanhope, a sensitive alpha male and brilliant leader who has become a hard drinker: booze his only solace on the Front. The actor gives peerless performances in both pictures — and now other producers and film-makers are sitting up and taking note. “Sam goes to very dark places in Journey’s End,” said director Dibb, admiringly. “He looks like a man who has endured the awful things that happened over there.”

Whisky is Stanhope’s crutch. It helps him cope when he has to send his men out on raids, knowing full well most won’t return.  Stanhope and his officers — superb acting from Paul Bettany, Stephen Graham and Asa Butterfield; with Toby Jones as cook — spend most of their time discussing the menu; the ‘yellow’ soup; the ‘cardboard’ chops. “They can’t talk about their fear, so they talk about food. It’s how they deal with their feelings,” Dibb said.

His exceptional film (which he hopes will be released this autumn, in time for Armistice Day, and before the 100th anniversary of the ending of World War I next year) hurls the audience right into those hellish dugouts.

Claflin has done fine work before now. He was particularly striking in the television dramas Any Human Heart and White Heat, and I mustn’t forget about his performance opposite Rachel Weisz in the lushly produced film My Cousin Rachel, due out this summer.

But suddenly, he’s outstanding. He laughed when I say this and said he never intended to become an actor. “I ate, drank and slept football. I have played every single position bar goalkeeper. I didn’t have any inkling of what I wanted to do with my life, other than play or coach or live football.”

But at 16 he broke his ankle, and was in plaster for six weeks. During convalescence, he started wondering about the beautiful game. Was he, actually, any good? “My mum always says that even when I was playing football, I was still a drama queen,” he added.

So once his ankle healed, he gave real drama a go. Musicals first: third priest in Jesus Christ Superstar. Hungarian phony in My Fair Lady. Then Dodger in Oliver! He applied for musical theatre courses, but realised he couldn’t dance.

But later he was accepted by LAMDA, and has worked steadily ever since. He and his actress wife Laura Haddock have a toddler son. It’s clear from two conversations with Claflin that he’s crazy about both of them. He has become buddies with Arterton, too.

He likes the fact that both come from working-class backgrounds. “We’re now officially very good friends,” he laughed. “She’s not afraid of pushing you as an actor; and she’s not afraid of being pushed.” Though he did once push too far.

“On the set of Their Finest I accidentally knocked her over when I ran into her. She went flying. She forgave me though,” he said sheepishly.

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Screen can reveal the first production still of Sam Claflin in World War One drama Journey’s End, of which Metro International will show first footage at next week’s EFM in Berlin.

Director Saul Dibb’s adaptation of R.C Sheriff’s classic play about trench warfare follows young recruit Raleigh (Asa Butterfield) who pulls strings to join his childhood friend and hero Captain Stanhope (Claflin) on the front line.

However, a much-changed Stanhope is horrified by Raleigh’s arrival given that they are anticipating a massive German advance.

Also starring are Paul Bettany, Stephen Graham, Toby Jones, and Tom Sturridge.

Simon Reade’s screenplay also draw’s on Sheriff’s novel co-written with author Vernon Bartlett. Guy de Beaujeu is producing with Reade through their production company, Fluidity Films.

The production is financed by the BFI, Fluidity Films, British Film Company, Metro International, Ingenious, The Welsh Government’s Media Investment Budget and uMedia.

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An A-list cast including Sam Claflin, Paul Bettany, Asa Butterfield and Toby Jones are preparing to begin filming Journey’s End, which shoots largely in Wales from next week.

The film is based on RC Sherriff’s play, first performed in London in 1928, which takes place over four days in March 1918 in the frontline trenches of France. It gives a glimpse of the tense, claustrophobic conditions of the dugout as the men await almost certain death.

Producers Guy de Beaujeu and Simon Reade of Fluidity Films – who made the acclaimed Private Peaceful – have been developing the film version of Journey’s End for some time, and have encountered wrangles over the rights on the way.

However, it is now set to begin filming in a few days’ time at Pinewood Studios Wales, with Saul Dibb directing from Reade’s screenplay. The film also stars Stephen Graham and Tom Sturridge.

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The Hunger Games’ Sam Claflin is attached to star as Captain Stanhope in the screen adaptation of R.C. Sheriff’s WWI classic play Journey’s End.

Freddie Highmore (Bates Motel) is due to co-star as Raleigh while Paul Bettany (Margin Call) and Toby Jones (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) are also attached in leading roles.

Set in the trenches over four days in 1918, Journey’s Endfollows a group of soldiers as they prepare for an enemy attack with new recruit Raleigh joining the company commanded by 20 year old Captain Stanhope, his former childhood friend and hero, who has changed almost beyond recognition following harrowing service at the front.

The film will be produced by Guy de Beaujeu and Simon Reade (Private Peaceful), from the latter’s screenplay adaptation.

UK sales outfit Metro International will be selling the project at the AFM and is understood to be in talks with an A-list director to shoot the film in the UK next year.

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