Director Dan Gilroy will reunite with his Nightcrawler stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo for a new, currently untitled, movie. Back in 2014, the trio teamed up to tell the story of Lou Bloom (Gyllenhaal), an ambitious sociopath who becomes enamored with the field of television news and rises his way to the top by employing some morally dubious tactics to get the desired footage for high ratings. The film received much critical acclaim upon its release, and many consider Gyllenhaal's lack of an Oscar nomination for Best Actor to be one of that year's most egregious snubs. However, Gilroy did receive a nod for Best Original Screenplay.
The filmmaker is following up Nightcrawler with the in-production legal thriller Inner City, which stars Denzel Washington as an idealistic defense attorney. Even though there's still some work left to be done on the drama, Gilroy is already in the early stages of piecing together his next project, and he's planning on bringing some familiar faces along for the ride.
According to Deadline, Gilroy's reps are looking to close a deal on a new film "set in the art world" that would star Gyllenhaal and Russo. There's reportedly much interest in the film, with multiple parties trying to land it. The hope is an agreement with a distributor can be reached by the end of the week, though there's no telling right now which studio is the frontrunner.
Plot details are being kept under wraps for the time being. The only bit of information to come out about the mystery film is that it is "very different" from both Nightcrawler and Inner City. That's a vague description, making it very difficult to determine what that means, exactly. It could pertain to the tone, but only time will tell. Regardless, it's no surprise the script is gaining traction in the industry, as Gilroy has become a hot commodity since the success of Nightcrawler. He demonstrated a talent for crafting an engaging, thought-provoking story populated with fascinating characters - a recipe that typically does well come awards season. Gyllenhaal and Russo both gave fantastic performances in Nightcrawler, so their involvement is worth getting excited about as well.
Fans of Gilroy will no doubt be enthused about the prospect of him teaming up with Gyllenhaal again, but there will likely be a little wait before this film moves along into production. As stated above, Gilroy is still hard at work on Inner City, which is currently without a release date. Additionally, Gyllenhaal is going to start filming the Boston Marathon bombing drama Stronger with director David Gordon Green soon, so he'll be occupied with that project. It's nevertheless encouraging to hear the two will be working together in the future, and ideally the results will be just as great as Nightcrawler.
We'll keep you updated on the untitled Dan Gilroy film as more information becomes available.
Source: Deadline