Another movie star is making the leap from film to television. HBO announced on Tuesday that Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler) will star in an upcoming limited series The Son with filmmaker Denis Villeneuve (Arrival) set to direct. Gyllenhaal and Villeneuve will also co-executive produce according to Indiewire.
This is not the pair’s first collaboration. Gyllenhaal and Villeneuve first worked with each other on the film Enemy, and then later on the 2011 dramatic thriller Prisoners. Featuring Gyllenhaal as a cop working a kidnapping case, Prisoners was critically acclaimed by critics and fans alike. Since Prisoners, the pair have wanted to work on another project together and they found that project with The Son.
Villaneuve is known for his work in the thriller and science fiction genre, having directed box office smashes including Arrival, Sicario, and Blade Runner 2049. He was nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards in 2016 for his film Arrival. He also directed the highly anticipated science fiction film epic Dune which is expected to come out in October 2021. With the limited series The Son, its story fits perfectly into Villeneuve’s film style as it tells a bleak tale of convicts and violence.
Based on the 2014 novel of the same name, The Son was written by Jo Nesbø (The Snowman). It’s an intense thriller that deals with the crime and corruption that runs throughout the city of Oslo, Norway. Gyllenhaal will portray Sonny, a criminal on the run who’s haunted by his murky past.
Originally set to be a film, Gyllenhaal and Villeneuve decided that the book had too much content to cram into a feature length film. Villeneuve will direct the entirety of the HBO limited series and Lenore Zion (Billions) will serve as the showrunner. Along with Gyllenhaal and Villeneuve, it will be executive produced by Nesbø, Riva Marker (Nightcrawler), Lisa Joy (Westworld), Jonathan Nolan (Intersellar), Athena Wickham (Person of Interest) and Zion.