Casey Affleck Lands First Post-Oscar Role in ‘Stoner’ With Blumhouse, Joe Wright
https://youtu.be/bQ4ESBafkWk
Following an Oscar victory for his performance in “Manchester by the Sea,” Casey Affleck has found his next film.
Affleck is set to star in “Stoner,” directed by Joe Wright, and produced by Jason Blum’s Blumhouse Productions.
Affleck plays the title role of William Stoner, a dirt poor farmer-turned-academic who emerges as an unlikely existential hero while making his way through the first half of the 2oth century. In the book, Stoner deals with his pursuit of literature, his workplace politics, marriage to his wife Edith, and an affair with colleague Katherine. Blumhouse optioned Stoner in 2011; the New Yorker called the book “the greatest American Novel you’ve never heard of.”
“Because the novel is so beautiful but not well-known, fans of Stoner feel like they’re in a secret club. I’m so excited that Casey, Joe and Andrew have come aboard to help expand this club’s membership,” Jason Blum said in a statement. “This quintessentially American work is being brought to the screen by a terrific international team, and we’re confident their combined perspectives will add rich layers to this moving story.”
Andrew Bovell will adapt the script based on the novel of the same name by John Williams. The movie will follow the life of William Stoner, a dirt-poor farmer turned academic, who emerges as an unlikely existential hero while making his way through the first half of the 20th Century.
“Because the novel is so beautiful but not well-known, fans of ‘Stoner’ feel like they’re in a secret club. I’m so excited that Casey, Joe and Andrew have come aboard to help expand this club’s membership,” said Blum, who optioned the book in 2011. “This quintessentially American work is being brought to the screen by a terrific international team and we’re confident their combined perspectives will add rich layers to this moving story.”
Blum (Blumhouse), Charles S. Cohen (CMG) and Daniel Battsek (Film4) are producing the film with Ethan Hawke serving as an executive producer. Battsek and Blum brought the project to Film4 for development during Battsek’s time as president of CMG, so he retains a producer credit on this one occasion, on what has long been a passion project.
Affleck had been weighing a handful of projects since winning his Oscar for “Manchester by the Sea.” The actor was most recently seen in David Lowery’s “A Ghost Story” and also has “The Old Man and the Gun” bowing this year. He is repped by WME …
“The movie will follow the life of William Stoner, a dirt-poor farmer turned academic, who emerges as an unlikely existential hero while making his way through the first half of the 20th Century.”
Just wanted to highlight that snippet in case people reading the headline thought Joe Wright was directing a Seth Rogen film. Sounds like maybe a “Forrest Gump” or “Benjamin Button” type story?