As anticipation builds for director Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge, Lionsgate/Summit recently announced the film will have a wide release in the US, planned for November 4, 2016.

Last year Sydney, Fox Studios Australia and regional NSW were the primary filming locations for Hacksaw Ridge. Mel Gibson returned to Sydney this month, as a guest of the Sydney Film Festival, to discuss his role in the Australian premiere of Blood Father and to talk about Hacksaw Ridge.

Gibson shared, in conversation with the audience, that they had recently tested Hacksaw Ridge in the States and it “went through the roof”.

Hacksaw Ridge is the true story of conscientious objector Desmond Doss who, in Okinawa during the bloodiest battle of WWII, saved 75 men without firing a gun. Believing that the war was just, but killing was nevertheless wrong, he was the only American soldier in WWII to fight on the front lines without a weapon. Doss single-handedly evacuated the wounded near enemy lines, braved fire while tending to soldiers, and was wounded by a grenade and hit by snipers. He is the only conscientious objector to ever win the US Medal of Honor.

The WWII tale stars Andrew Garfield, Sam Worthington, Luke Bracey, Teresa Palmer, Hugo Weaving, Rachel Griffiths and Vince Vaughn.

Hacksaw Ridge will be distributed in Australia by Icon Film Distribution, with IM Global handling international sales.