[protected-iframe id=”5821ecb6032642a550b375a747c816a3-60970621-23552814″ info=”//players.brightcove.net/4262107416001/ryIcG8zYl_default/index.html?videoId=4415142925001&playsinline=true” webkitallowfullscreen=”” mozallowfullscreen=”” allowfullscreen=”” width=”650″ height=”366″]
Having already played the likes of a comic book monstrosity in X-Men: Days of Future Past and a war boy in Mad Max: Fury Road, actor Nicholas Hoult has decided to take his talents in a decidedly less science fiction-esque direction. At least, that’s the word from Variety, who reports that the English actor will play American author J.D. Salinger in an upcoming biopic about the secretive writer.
Titled Rebel in the Rye, the film will be directed by Empire creator Danny Strong, who also adapted the screenplay from the Kenneth Slawenski biography, J.D. Salinger: A Life. As for the plot, it will follow the schema of a typical biopic:
The movie will explore the life and mind of the secretive author and tell the story of the birth of “The Catcher in the Rye.” The story will explore his rebellious youth, his experiences on the bloody front lines of World War II, enduring great love and terrible loss, a life of rejection to the pages of the New Yorker and his writer’s block — which led to a spiritual awakening.
Despite the unsurprising nature of the film’s supposed story, however, this is Catcher in the Rye we’re talking about. J.D.-frickin’-Salinger himself. The man definitely wasn’t a phony, and with the likes of Strong and Hoult involved, there’s a good chance Rebel in the Rye won’t be phony either.
Let’s just hope that Lee Daniels’ name isn’t affixed to the film’s title a la Lee Daniels’ The Butler, for which Strong wrote the screenplay. Please don’t let this happen, Mr. Strong. Don’t let Daniels anywhere near this thing.
(Via Variety)
