Surgeon Who Saved WW2 'Guinea Pig' Pilots Honoured With Movie

A new film that tells the story of the surgeon who saved the lives of the 649 Second World War "guinea pigs" is set to start filming.

Seventy years ago, Sir Archibald McIndoe defied the British establishment with his radical methods aimed at healing severely burned bodies, hence the name 'The Guinea Pig Club'.

Due to begin filming in February, the production already has a script, director and lead actors lined up, and is currently being offered for sale at the Cannes Film Festival.

His family had said that they were aware of numerous attempts to make a film based on his life, according to The Telegraph.

His daughter said:

"Nobody had known how to help these burnt airmen who were falling out of the sky. He was a great man."

Richard E. Grant is set to take the starring role while Jeremy Irvine will take the part of Richard Hillary, a Second World War fighter pilot who was shot down and received extensive burns before bailing out in the North Sea.

Hillary returned to action after being rehabilitied by McIndoe, but was then killed during a night flight crash in 1943.

The film will be titled 'The Guinea Pig Club', which was formed in 1941 and comprised of badly wounded and burned men, many of whom fought in the Battle Of Britain. 

As the name suggests, these were men who underwent pioneering, untested reconstructive surgery during the Second World War.

The club, of which the Duke of Edinburgh is president, met regularly until 2007, but now there is just a handful of surviving members.

Last year, a statue in honour of Sir McIndoe was unveiled in East Grinstead: