Flatiron Pictures is pleased to announce it has optioned the book THE NAKED ROWER by New Zealand Olympian Rob Hamill.
Hamill is most famous for winning the 1997 inaugural Atlantic Rowing Race, a grueling 2,500 mile rowing competition from
Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain) to Barbados (West Indies), which turned into a 41 day odyssey at sea and is chronicled
in THE NAKED ROWER.
In 2011 Hamill was the subject of the internationally acclaimed documentary, BROTHER NUMBER ONE, which examined his
journey to discover the truth of what happened to his brother Kerry who went missing after being taken prisoner by the
Khmer Rouge in 1978 while sailing in the waters off of Cambodia.
“We are thrilled to be combining the arduous physical journey of Rob’s extraordinary experience rowing across the
Atlantic with his emotional search for the truth behind Kerry’s disappearance,” said Flatiron Pictures President,
Suzanne Weinert. “Our hope is to create a powerful international drama along the lines of classic movies such as “The
Year of Living Dangerously” and “Missing”.
“The enormity and significance of this project is still sinking in,” said Hamill. “I feel incredibly fortunate to be
granted the opportunity to bring the story to life in honoring the memory of my brother and the millions of Cambodian
lives affected during Pol Pot’s reign of terror.”
Currently in development, Weinert and Hamill expect shooting to take place in locations throughout New Zealand and Fiji.
Weinert most recently produced the award-winning documentary JR “BOB” DOBBS AND THE CHURCH OF THE SUBGENIUS currently
available on Amazon Prime. Her directorial debut A GOOD SON premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in 2019.
Hamill travels the world as a motivational speaker who believes “Anything is Possible”. He and his wife Rachel are
currently on a 2+ year sailing adventure in the South Pacific along with their sons Finn, Declan and Ivan. You can
follow their adventures by subscribing to their YouTube show “The Cruising Kiwis”, or by following them on
Facebook/Instagram.