‘Nyad’: Rhys Ifans, Annette Bening and Jodie Foster join Netflix swim biopic

Rhys Ifans joins Netflix’s swim biopic “Nyad,” which also stars Annette Bening and Jodie Foster.

Bening plays the protagonist Diana Nyad, Foster plays her coach and longtime friend Bonnie Stoll, and Ifans plays John Bartlett, a Florida boat designer and catamaran captain who accompanies Diana on her swim.

“Nyad” is directed by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin (“Free Solo”), with a screenplay by Ann Biderman and Julia Cox (“The Last Tycoon”).

The film is based on the best-selling autobiography Find A Way by Nyad, who in the 1970s was regarded as the world’s greatest long-distance swimmer, breaking several world records.

In 2013, 64-year-old Nyad, with the help of his best friend and 35 enthusiastic supporters, fulfilled a lifelong dream, which he had failed many times as a teenager, without a shark cage: to cross the 110-mile sea from Cuba to Florida, is the first person to achieve this.

This dangerous sea is home to some of the world’s leading sharks, venomous jellyfish, unpredictable currents, and eddies.

Since the 1950s, many great swimmers have tried it, and Nyad almost died in this adventure. After five challenges, she finally succeeded.

Related Post: “Nyad”: Jodie Foster’s new film plan revealed, she will star in swimmer biopic.