Sound the Prisoners reunion klaxon; Jake Gyllenhaal is on the verge of sealing a reunion with Denis Villeneuve, the creative mind behind Enemy, Sicario, Incendies and, crucially, the really rather excellent crime drama Prisoners.
This time around, Gyllenhaal and Villeneuve will be collaborating for The Son – not to be confused with the Sam Neill-fronted AMC series of the same name – an adaptation of Jo Nesbo’s original novel. It’s not the only Nesbo project bound for the big screen either, after news emerged late last year that The Snowman found a home at Working Title, securing X-Men: Apocalypse and Assassin’s Creed star Michael Fassbender as the lead.
Remaining in the crime drama genre, The Son follows a “once-gifted 15-year-old and promising wrestler, whose life spirals out of control when his cop father commits suicide. He winds up in prison, nurtured by an uninterrupted supply of heroin from a seedy chaplain on the inside. When he learns long-hidden truths about his father’s unexpected death, he makes a brilliant escape and begins hunting down the people responsible for his wrongful sentence.”
Jake Gyllenhaal’s and Riva Marker’s Nine Stories sourced and are developing the material with Villeneuve. Bold Films, meanwhile, is financing the project through their first look and overhead deal with Nine Stories. Remaining behind the scenes for the time being, Gary Michael Walters will executive produce with Nesbo himself and Niclas Salomonsson. As for Denis Villeneuve, he’s currently at the helm of long-gestating sci-fi sequel Blade Runner 2, which is booked in for a release on October 5, 2017.
No word yet on a release timeline for The Son, though considering the Nesbo’s track record not to mention the big names of Villeneuve and Gyllenhaal, we’re excited to see how this one pans out.