OSCAR winner Colin Firth is reportedly going to star in a film about a Russian submarine disaster where a Furness-based company offered its rescue equipment and expertise. 

The British star has been tipped to star in the movie of the Kursk disaster and rescue attempt.

The film will be based on Robert Moore’s 2002 book A Time to Die: The Untold Story of the Kursk Tragedy.

Kursk was an Oscar-II class nuclear-powered cruise-missile submarine for the Russian Navy which sank in the Barents Sea in August 2000 during a maritime exercise. A total of 118 lives were lost in the disaster.   

The crew's struggle to survive hit international headlines, and their families had to endure political pressure as well as the unbearable tension of waiting for news of their loved ones.  

Eventually the British and Norwegians were allowed to help the rescue effort, but it was too late.   

A British rescue team equipped with a unique minisub LR5, from Furness company, Rumic, and expertise, was mobilised to the site of the stricken submarine on behalf of the Royal Navy.

The man leading the Royal Navy's team was Commander Alan Hoskins of Ulverston. A team from Furness and Scotland employed by Rumic were waiting onboard a cargo ship, the Normand Pioneer, to assist.   

But tragically Norwegian divers established that the Kursk was flooded and LR5 was not deployed.

The Kursk film will be based on a screenplay by Robert Rodat, the Oscar-nominated writer of Saving Private Ryan.

The movie may draw comparisons with Hollywood films The Hunt for Red October and K-19: The Widowmaker, both themed around submarines.