In the last couple of years, Liverpool-based film company Hurricane Films have made some promising features which include the Scottish drama Sunset Song (2015) and last year’s Emily Dickinson biopic A Quiet Passion.

However their latest project sees them tackle the gritty true story of one man’s struggles in a foreign prison in the upcoming drama A Prayer Before Dawn.

Already drawing comparisons with the brutal 1970s biopic Midnight Express (1978), the film has now premiered its official trailer online.

Directed by Jean-Stephane Sauvaire (Johnny Mad Dog, Punk), the synopsis focuses on how Wavertree-born boxer Billy Moore was imprisoned in Thailand for being in possession of drugs. Over the course of a couple of years, he would encounter violence from his inmates and the prison guards but would reinvent himself by becoming a Muay Thai boxing champion.

British starlet Joe Cole (Peaky Blinders, Green Room) plays the role of Moore with support coming from Vithaya Pansringarm (The Hangover Part II, Only God Forgives) while several cast members are actually former inmates who served time in Thai prisons in real life.

A Prayer Before Dawn will be released sometime in 2018.