William Hurt set to star in Jesse Owens biopic 'Race'

William Hurt has joined the cast of upcoming biopic on Jesse Owens titled 'Race.'

The drama project, which would be helmed by Stephen Hopkins, stars Stephan James as the renowned track and field athlete, along with Jeremy Irons, Jason Sudeikis and Carice van Houten, the Hollywood Reporter reported.

The movie has begun filming in Montreal and at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, where Owens had claimed the record-breaking four gold medals in 1936, and Hurt would play Jeremiah Mahoney, president of the Amateur Athletic Union, who tried to boycott the Olympics that year.

The film's script was penned by Anna Waterhouse and Joe Shrapnel wrote the script for Race, and would be produced by Jean Charles Levy, Luc Dayan, Kate Garwood, Hopkins, Louis-Philippe Rochon, Dominique Seguin, Karsten Brunig and Thierry Potok.

Christophe Charlier, Ben Grass, Scott Kennedy, Bonnie Timmermann, George Acogny, Nicolas Manuel, Jonathan Bronfman and Al Munteanu would be the executive producers.

Focus Features have slated the film for an April 8, 2016 release.