Jake Gyllenhaal signs on for new Denis Villenueve project, 'The Son'

Image from Variety

By Darian Scalamoni

Denis Villenueve (Sicario, Prisoners) has had tremendous success with his crime thrillers in the past few years and now one of his stars will reunite with the director for the third time. According to Tracking Board, Jake Gyllenhaal has officially signed on to Villenueve’s newest film, The Son. 

           The film will follow the life of Sonny Lofthus, a once gifted 15-year-old and promising wrestler has a downward spiral after his police officer father commits suicide. Sonny has been in prison for twelve years and has been nurtured by a supply of heroin from a sleazy chaplain on the inside. When Sonny learns the truth about his father’s unexpected death, he makes a brilliant escape and begins hunting down the people responsible for his wrongful jail sentence.

            Gyllenhaal and Villenueve have worked together often lately starting with Prisoners, which if you haven’t seen is an amazing film. Also, they worked together in the 2013 movie, Enemy.

            These two guys have been insanely busy and successful in the film industry as of late. Villenueve has quickly become one of our best filmmakers in modern Hollywood. His next film is Story of Your Life starring Jeremy Renner and Amy Adams; after that, Villenueve is slated to direct Blade Runner 2 starring Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling. Gyllenhaal has been putting in fantastic performances as of late with films like Nightcrawler and Southpaw but he also has tons of things in the works. Next up for him is Tom Ford’s sophomore directorial effort Nocturnal Animals starring Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Michael Shannon. Along with that, he will also star in Stronger, which has to deal with victim of the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013 as he helps police track down the killers while dealing with his own trauma.