Jake Gyllenhaal has signed on to star in a remake of Danish thriller The Guilty.
Directed by Gustav Moller, the original film was unveiled at the Sundance Film Festival in January (18), where it won the Audience Award in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, and it has also been selected as Denmark's submission for the 2019 Academy Awards' Best Foreign Language Film category.
Now, Gyllenhaal and his Nine Stories production partner Riva Marker have teamed up with executives at Bold Films to acquire the rights to the story, with the actor set to headline the remake.
"We saw The Guilty at Sundance and were blown away," Gyllenhaal and Marker told Variety. "Moller'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 honoured to be able to adapt it for American audiences alongside Bold Films."
Moller and original producer Lina Flint will serve as executive producers on the remake. The original story followed emergency dispatcher and former police officer Asger Holm, played by Jakob Cedergren, as he answers a call from a kidnapped woman. When the call is suddenly disconnected, the search for the woman and her kidnapper begins.
Speaking about the upcoming movie, Bold Films chairman Michel Litvak said that he was looking forward to seeing Gyllenhaal take on the central role.
"We are thrilled to acquire this great IP (intellectual property) for Jake," he added. "It's a terrific vehicle for him to craft a super taut, elevated thriller."
A potential release date for The Guilty remake has not yet been announced.
Gyllenhaal was most recently seen onscreen in Jacques Audiard's film The Sisters Brothers and in Paul Dano's Wildlife. The 37-year-old is next set to appear in Edward Berger thriller Rio alongside Michelle Williams and Benedict Cumberbatch, and as villain Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home.
