It would appear that if you've made a movie that qualifies for the Foreign Language category at next year's Oscar ceremony, someone wants to remake it. On the heels of Jodie Foster snapping up the chance to direct and star in her version of Woman At Warcomes news that Jake Gyllenhaal will take the lead and produce The Guilty.
Originally co-written and directed by Sweden's Gustav Möller, The Guilty won the World Cinema Award at Sundance and is Denmark's official entry to the Oscars. The story follows a police officer under investigation who is demoted to desk-work at an emergency call centre. When he receives a terrified phone call from a kidnapped woman, he must battle his internal demons in order to save her.
While the story sounds a little like a cross between Locke and The Call, this one promises to be something even more tense. “We saw The Guilty at Sundance and were blown away. Möller’s film masterfully weaves tension into an acute character study, and is exactly the kind of material that Nine Stories is excited to develop. We are honored to be able to adapt it for American audiences alongside Bold Films,” Gyllenhaal and his production partner Riva Marker.
The next step will be to find a writer for the adaptation and a director to call the shots. Gyllenhaal has Dan Gilroy's Velvet Buzzsaw arriving 1 February via Netflix and will be seen as Quentin Beck/Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home, out next July. His funny video showing him "learning" he's playing the villain and not Spidey marked his first post on his new Instagram account.
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