Casey Affleck to headline film adaptation of acclaimed novel Stoner

5 September 2017

• Joe Wright to helm the feature
• Andrew Bovell writing screenplay based on John Williams’ novel
• From Blumhouse Productions, Cohen Media Group and Film4

 

Blumhouse Productions, Cohen Media Group (CMG) and Film4 today announced that Academy Award-winning actor, Casey Affleck has signed on to play the title role of William Stoner in the film adaptation of the celebrated John Williams novel, Stoner.They also revealed acclaimed British director, Joe Wright will helm the feature and Australian screenwriter, Andrew Bovell is adapting the novel for the screen.

Stoner follows the hardscrabble 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. Williams’ 1965 novel has been praised as “a masterly portrait of a truly virtuous and dedicated man.” (New Yorker) “….so well told and beautifully written, so deeply moving, that it takes your breath away.” (New York Times Book Review)

Blumhouse optioned the book in 2011. While the New Yorker hails Stoner as “the greatest American Novel you’ve never heard of,” its diverse group of ardent admirers include the novelists Bret Easton Ellis and Nick Hornby and the actor Tom Hanks.

“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,” commented Jason Blum. “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.”

Jason Blum (Blumhouse), Charles S. Cohen (CMG) and Daniel Battsek (Film4) are producing the film with Ethan Hawke serving as 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 of his.

Casey Affleck is widely recognized for his indelible portrayals of complicated men. In 2016, his powerful performance as an uncle forced to take care of his teenage nephew after the death of his father in Manchester by the Sea earned him an Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA award. His turn as Robert Ford in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford opposite Brad Pitt’s Jesse James, was widely praised and garnered Oscar, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild nominations. He also played the lead in Gone Baby Gone, the critically-acclaimed film adaptation of the Dennis Lehane novel. His credits also include A Ghost Story, Interstellar, To Die For, Good Will Hunting, the Oceans trilogy and the upcoming films The Old Man and the Gun,starring opposite Robert Redford, and his directorial feature Light of My Life, which he wrote and stars in.

Known for his lauded adaptations of classic novels, director Joe Wright’s feature film debut, Pride & Prejudice earned him a BAFTA award as Most Promising Newcomer. His follow up effort, Atonement, based on the Ian McEwan novel, received seven Golden Globe nominations, seven Oscar nominations, winning for best original score, and BAFTA awards for best film and production design. Wright next directed The Soloist followed by the sleeper hit Hanna. In 2012, his ambitious adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina was widely heralded.   His directing credits also include Pan, an origin story of the beloved Peter Pan characters, as well as the upcoming film, Darkest Hour starring Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill leading the charge against Adolf Hitler’s army in the early days of World War II.

Playwright and Screenwriter, Andrew Bovell is best known for the film Lantana, which he adapted from his award-winning play Speaking in Tongues. Bovell also adapted A Most Wanted Man, from the John le Carré novel of the same name. His other writing credits include the film Edge of Darkness and the award-winning play When the Rain Stops Falling, which played on Broadway in 2010.

Affleck is represented by WME and Ziffren Brittenham. Wright is representedby CAA. Bovell is represented by Kate Richter at HLA Management in Australia and Jerry Kalajian at International Property Group.

 

ABOUT BLUMHOUSE PRODUCTIONS

Blumhouse Productions, founded by Academy-award nominated and two time Emmy and Peabody award-winning producer Jason Blum, is a multi-media company known for pioneering a new model of studio filmmaking: producing high-quality, micro-budget films. In 2017 Blumhouse produced the critically-acclaimed blockbusters Get Out from Jordan Peele and Split from M. Night Shyamalan, which have grossed more than $500 million worldwide off combined budgets of less than $15 million. In addition, Blumhouse is the producer of the highly-profitable The Purge, Insidious, Sinister and Paranormal Activity franchises, which together have grossed more than $1.7 billion worldwide. In 2017, Blum launched an independent TV studio with investment from ITV Studios. Current projects include “Sharp Objects,” a mini-series for HBO starring Amy Adams based on Gillian Flynn’s bestselling novel of the same name, and a mini-series for Showtime based on journalist Gabriel Sherman’s reporting on former Fox News Chief, Roger Ailes.

 

ABOUT COHEN MEDIA GROUP

Cohen Media Group has released dozens of acclaimed Independent films throughout North America including The Salesman from Iranian Director Asghar Farhadi, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film and three Best Foreign Language Academy Award® nominees -- Outside the Law, Timbuktu and Mustang. CMG is committed to bringing the finest contemporary foreign films to domestic audiences and is recognized as the largest American distributor of French titles in the United States. In 2015 CMG acquired rights to a 30-title library of motion pictures produced by the legendary Merchant Ivory Productions. The films from the esteemed group will be restored and re-released as part of the Cohen Film Collection. CMG’s Cohen Film Collection features some 800 archival titles including landmark silent films by D.W. Griffith, Buster Keaton and Douglas Fairbanks, as well as foreign classics such as Luis Bunuel’s Tristana. Most recently, Charles Cohen acquired the Merchant Ivory brand and the worldwide distribution rights to 21 features, along with nine documentaries and shorts, which include award-winning works such as Howards End, Maurice, Shakespeare Wallah and Heat and Dust. CMG is committed to film distribution and preservation of classics, as well as its imminent entry into exhibition with its acquisition and renovation of the Quad Cinema in NY.

 

ABOUT FILM4

Film4 is Channel 4 Television’s feature film division. Film4 develops and co-finances films and is known for working with the most distinctive and innovative talent in UK and international filmmaking, whether new or established.

Film4 has developed and co-financed many of the most successful UK films of recent years, Academy Award®-winners such as Lenny Abrahamson’sRoom, Alex Garland’s Ex Machina, Asif Kapadia’s box office record breaking documentary Amy, Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire and Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron Lady, in addition to critically-acclaimed award-winners such as Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner, Chris Morris’s Four Lions, Shane Meadows’ This is England, Clio Barnard’s The Selfish Giant, Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin, David Mackenzie’s Starred Up and Yann Demange’s ’71.

Film4’s recent releases include Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire, Danny Boyle’s T2 Trainspotting, Andrea Arnold’s American Honey, Todd Haynes’ Carol, Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette, Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster and Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years. Forthcoming releases include Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Andrew Haigh’s Lean on Pete, Clio Barnard’s Dark River, Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Lynne Ramsay’sYou Were Never Really Here, Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not a Witch, John Cameron Mitchell’s How To Talk To Girls At Parties, Michael Pearce’s Beast, Paddy Considine’s Journeyman, Toby MacDonald’s Old Boys. Films in production include Lenny Abrahamson’s The Little Stranger, Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite, Bart Layton’s American Animals, Mike Leigh’s Peterloo, Steve McQueen’s Widows, Stephen Merchant’s Fighting With My Family, Sebastián Lelio’s Disobedience, Garth Davis’s Mary Magdalene and Asif Kapadia’s Maradona.

For further information please visit www.film4productions.com.