Jake Gyllenhaal, whose Southpaw had a strong debut at the box office this weekend, is reportedly looking to star in Stronger, a movie about Boston Marathon bombing survivor Jeff Bauman. The project is set up at Lionsgate and will be directed by David Gordon Green.
Variety reports that the actor is in early talks and is one of several big names Lionsgate executives met about playing Bauman. However, Gyllenhaal is the favorite for the part.
Green signed on to direct the film earlier this month. Lionsgate has been working on the project since July 2014. The script was written by John Pollono and will be produced with Mandeville Films principals Todd Lieberman and David Hoberman. Peter McGuigan is the executive producer.
Bauman co-wrote the book Stronger with Bret Witter. He lost both legs in the April 2013 attack, which killed three and left over 260 others injured.
While there are two other Boston Marathon bombing projects in the works, including one produced by Mark Wahlberg, Stronger sounds like it could be the first one out of the gate. The other projects are still without directors.
Gyllenhaal was last seen in Southpaw and Nightcrawler. He’ll next be seen in Everest on Sept. 25 and Demolition on April 8, 2016. The actor has a bunch of other projects in the works, so it will be impressive to see how he fits Stronger into his schedule.
image courtesy of Jennifer Graylock/INFphoto.com