Nicholas Hoult was cast last autumn in the J.D. Salinger biopic Rebel In The Rye. He's since been joined by Kevin Spacey, Laura Dern, Brian D’Arcy James, Hope Davis and Zoey Deutch. And the latest actress to join the extensive roster is Sarah Paulson.
Director and screenwriter Danny Strong has adapted the film from Kenneth Slawenski’s Salinger biography, J.D. Salinger: A Life. The ambitious aim is to get inside the mind of the secretive writer, including, of course, the writing of his iconic novel The Catcher In The Rye. Rebel will look at Salinger's youth, his time spent in conflict during World War II, finding love, enduring loss and years of rejection letters from The New Yorker, which fuelled chronic writer’s block but also helped him find his voice.
Hoult is Salinger, Deutch is New York socialite and sometime Salinger love interest Oona O'Neill, and Spacey plays Columbia professor Whit Burnett, one of Salinger's early mentors. Paulson will be Dorothy Olding, Salinger's lifelong literary agent and one of his earliest champions.
Strong, who got his start as an actor, has become an accomplished writer of both films and television, scoring two Emmy Awards along the way. He co-created the TV hit Empire with Lee Daniels and directed an episode of the show. Rebel In The Rye marks his debut directing a film. Black Label Media have provided the backing.
There was some thought that shooting would start at the end of last year. That didn't happen, but shooting is now finally underway in New York. Expect the film in cinemas sometime next year. We'll next see Hoult in the rather different X-Men: Apocalypse on May 19.