BRIT prisoner of war Shaun Pinner who was held captive by Vladimir Putin’s sadistic army has joked that Daniel Craig should play him in the new film adaptation of his ordeal.
The war hero, 50, was kept in a Russian prison for five months after being captured during the fall of Mariupol in Ukraine in April 2022.
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His autobiographical memoir, Live. Fight. Survive., published last year, is now being turned into a Hollywood blockbuster by Tom Hardy’s filmmaking dad.
The book details how he had been starved, pistol-whipped, stabbed in the leg and “fried” with a cattle-prod, and faced a death penalty while in captivity.
Shaun told The Sun on Sunday: “When the book came out my son actually said, ‘wouldn’t it be amazing if it was made into a film’.
“He asked me who I would want to play me and I suggested Tom Hardy. He laughed and said Tom was a little too young to play me and instead suggested Harrison Ford.
“Daniel Craig is another suggestion that is in the mix but whatever happens this means an awful lot, not just to me, but for everyone in the book.”
British/Ukrainian production company United Heroes is set to adapt the harrowing novel as a feature film with the working title, The English Warrior.
Writer Edward “Chips” Hardy – who co-created the BBC/FX series Taboo with his son, Marvel star Tom Hardy – and Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight are set to work on the screen adaptation.
The former prisoner of war added: ”I never imagined it would be made into a film. It still hasn’t really sunk in.
“I thought it was important to write the book to make sure there was an account of what happened.
“It was so important for so many people, including those still held captive by the Russians and those who didn’t make it out alive.
“This is a way of making sure that their legacy lives on.”
The book’s title comes from the message his Ukrainian wife gave him in their final call before his capture, that he should “Live. Fight. Survive.”
“I’m just so happy for the people who have helped along the way, including my wife Laryssa,” said Shaun.
The dad-of-one had promised his mum Deborah, 65, and adult son not to fight on the frontline again – but he insisted on returning to the warzone to be with his Ukrainian aid-worker wife Larysa who was helping to save lives.
He and fellow British prisoner of war Aiden Aslin had been charged with being “illegal combatants”.
His sadistic captors freed him in a historic prisoner swap in exchange for pro-Kremlin Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk.
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To break the news to the world, his captors forced him to phone a British newspaper and he chose The Sun.
He has since won a lawsuit against The Russian Federation after the ordeal and has been awarded the Order of Courage by Ukraine.
