Bold Films, and Jake Gyllenhaal and Riva Marker’s Nine Stories banner have acquired the rights to remake the Danish thriller “The Guilty,” with Gyllenhaal attached to star.
The pic won the world cinema audience award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and was also named one of the top five foreign language films of 2018 by the National Board of Review. The movie, Denmark’s foreign-language Oscar entry, is also nominated for best screenwriter and best actor at the European Film Awards.
The movie follows a police officer under investigation, who’s demoted to desk work at an emergency call center. When he receives a terrified phone call from a kidnapped woman, he must battle his internal demons in order to save her.
Gyllenhaal and Marker will produce for Nine Stories, alongside Bold Films’ Michel Litvak, Gary Michael Walters, David Litvak, and Svetlana Metkina. Bold Films will finance the pic. The original film’s co-writer/director Gustav Möller and producer Lina Flint will serve as executive producers. The original movie was the first production from Spring, the new talent development initiative backed by TrustNordisk.
“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 Marker said.
“We are thrilled to acquire this great IP for Jake,” Bold Films chairman Michel Litvak said. “It’s a terrific vehicle for him to craft a super taut, elevated thriller.”
Worldwide sales were handled by TrustNordisk, which sold Möller’s movie to Magnolia Pictures in the U.S.
“We are super excited about this collaboration and we look very much forward to continue the amazing journey with ‘The Guilty,’” Flint said.
Gyllenhaal most recently starred in Paul Dano’s directorial debut, “Wildlife.” He can next be seen in Dan Gilroy’s “Velvet Buzzsaw,” which will premiere at Sundance and debut on Netflix in February. Gyllenhaal will follow that up with “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” where he will play Spider-Man villain Mysterio, alongside Tom Holland and Zendaya. The sequel is set to bow on July 5, 2019.
He will return to the stage for “Sea Wall/A Life,” an exploration of the beauty of life and the meaning of love, which opens on Jan. 26, 2019 at the Public Theater.
Bold Films recently released “Vox Lux,” starring Natalie Portman and Jude Law.
Gyllenhaal and Nine Stories are represented by WME and Bloom Hergott. Möller and Flint are represented by WME.
