(JTA) – A feature film about the life of Nicholas Winton, who saved 669 children from the Nazis, is in production with Oscar winner  Anthony Hopkins in the lead role. “One Life” has Hopkins playing an older Winton, Deadline Hollywood reported. British actor Johnny Flynn portrays the young Winton. Winton, who is nicknamed “the British Schindler,” died in 2015 at the age of 106.

The baptized son of Jewish parents, Winton was a 29-year-old stockbroker when he arrived in Prague in December 1938. He was planning to go on a skiing holiday in Switzerland, but changed his plans when he heard about the refugee crisis in Czechoslovakia, which had just been occupied by the Nazis. In the following nine months, he organized eight trains that carried children, the vast majority of them Jewish, from Czechoslovakia to safety in Britain. Winton’s heroism was unremarked until the 1980s, when his wife found evidence of the rescues. The discovery led to a surprise reunion with some of the children and a documentary. Winton received many honors in his later years, including a knighthood.

Main Photo: Sir Nicholas Winton, who saved 669 mostly Jewish children from the Nazis by organising their escape from occupied Czechoslovakia to Great Britain, receives the Order of White Lion, the highest order of the Czech Republic, from Czech President Milos Zeman during the Independence Day at Prague Castle on Oct. 28, 2014 in Prague, Czech Republic. (Matej Divizna/Getty Images)