Darren Aronofsky’s unique brand of filmmaking looks set to explore new terrain for his next couple of projects. Turning his hand to small-screen serials, he’s currently attached to direct HBO’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy at some unknown point in the future. But first, it’s looking as though he’ll be heading up a new big screen feature with The Good Nurse.
This intriguing project was unearthed on The Tracking Board’s 2014 Hitlist (via The Playlist); a run-down of the industry’s hottest development deals. According to the brief entry, Aronofsky is attached to direct the film for Lionsgate. When the deal was struck is unknown, but the logline for the pic suggests the director is venturing into a different type of material than usual.
The film is set to revolve around the true story of nurse Charlie Cullen. A registered nurse, in 2003 Cullen was arrested after a horrifying killing spree that earned him the gruesome monicker ‘The Angel Of Death.’
The script will take its prompts from the book by Charles Graeber, with Krysty Wilson-Cairns set to pen the screenplay. It’s got the potential to be a truly unique piece by Aronofsky, and we hope that this will be his next project.
We’ll keep you posted when any official announcements are made. For now, though, here’s The Good Nurse book synopsis to give you an inkling of what Aronofsky might be tackling:
After his December 2003 arrest, registered nurse Charlie Cullen was quickly dubbed ‘The Angel of Death’ by the media. But Cullen was no mercy killer, nor was he a simple monster. He was a favourite son, husband, beloved father, best friend, and celebrated caregiver. Implicated in the deaths of as many as 300 patients, he was also perhaps the most prolific serial killer in American history. Cullen’s murderous career in the world’s most trusted profession spanned sixteen years and nine hospitals across New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Investigative journalist Charles Graeber’s portrait of Cullen depicts a surprisingly intelligent and complicated young man whose promising career was overwhelmed by his compulsion to kill, and whose shy demeanor masked a twisted interior life hidden even to his family and friends. Were it not for the hardboiled, unrelenting work of two former Newark homicide detectives racing to put together the pieces of Cullen’s professional past, and a fellow nurse willing to put everything at risk, including her job and the safety of her children, there’s no telling how many more lives could have been lost. In the tradition of In Cold Blood, The Good Nurse does more than chronicle Cullen’s deadly career and the breathless efforts to stop him; it paints an incredibly vivid portrait of madness and offers an urgent, terrifying tale of murder, friendship and betrayal.