Jake Gyllenhaal is set to team up with up-and-coming indie director Janicza Bravo in a new TV adaptation of Ian Parker’s bizarre The New Yorker article “A Suspense Novelist’s Trail of Deceptions,” as reported by Deadline. Bravo, who’s highly anticipated comedy-drama film Zola was delayed earlier this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will co-write and direct the pilot alongside Brian Savelson (Little America).
Parker’s 2019 story delves into the complicated life of former book editor Dan Mallory, whose debut psychological thriller, The Woman in the Window, which was written under the pseudonym of A.J. Finn, became the hit psychological thriller of 2018. The New Yorker article accuseed Mallory of fabricating aspects of his life, including his comments on suffering from a brain tumor and mourning the death of his mother and brother.
Gyllenhaal will star as Dan Mallory, an unreliable narrator who mourns the passing of his family members and nurses brain tumors he doesn’t really have, all while preying on the sympathies of others to get away with almost anything.
Bravo spoke in Deadline about the project, stating “What may have started out as my dog ate my homework turns into my mother died of cancers, my brother took his life and I have a double doctorate.” She continues “Our protagonist is white, male and pathological. There is a void in him and he fills it by duping people. He’s a scammer. The series examines white identity and how we as an audience participate in making room for this behavior. Getting to partner with Annapurna and Nine Stories is a gift and I am most thrilled for what lies ahead.”
Bravo, Gyllenhaal, Parker and Savelson will all act as producers on the show along with Riva Marker (Relic), Megan Ellison (The Plot Against America), Sue Naegle (Shirley), Sammy Scher (The Sisters Brothers), and Susan Goldberg, all of whom are repped by Annapurna and Nine Stories.