Coming off from the critical success of Sony Pictures Classics’ The Father, director Florian Zeller is officially setting up his follow-up project with a new film adaptation of another one of his acclaimed stage plays titled The Son. Golden Globe winner Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables) and Oscar winner Laura Dern (Marriage Story) have signed on for the leading roles in the family drama. The project also hails from the award-winning production company See-Saw Films, who are known for their work on Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech, Garth Davis’ Lion, Steve McQueen’s Widows and Francis Lee’s Ammonite.
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“The Son is a deeply human story which, I believe, connects us all; I hope audiences will be profoundly moved by this family’s journey,” Zeller said in a statement (via Deadline). “Both Hugh and Laura naturally convey great warmth, compassion, and vulnerability… inviting our audience to embrace and feel every moment. The story is set in a vibrant and very much alive New York, an important character. The movie should make us call family and friends to tell them that they are wholly loved and not alone.”
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The Son centers around Peter (Jackman), whose busy life with new partner Emma and their baby is thrown into disarray when his ex-wife Kate (Dern) turns up with their teenage son, Nicholas. The young man is troubled, distant and angry, playing truant from school for months. Peter strives to be a better father, searching to help his son with those intimate and instinctive moments of family happiness. But the weight of Nicholas’ condition sets the family on a dangerous course.
The film will be directed by Florian Zeller from a screenplay he co-wrote with Oscar winner Christopher Hampton. The original play first opened in London in 2019 and, like his previous stage plays, earned rave reviews.
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The Son will be produced by See-Saw’s Iain Canning and Emile Sherman along with Christophe Spadone, who is reuniting with Zeller after last year’s The Father. It will also be executive produced by Jackman, See-Saw’s Simon Gillis, Daniel Battsek, Lauren Dark and Ollie Madden for Film4, Philippe Carcassonne for Ciné-@ and Tim Haslam and Hugo Grumbar for Embankment.
Zeller’s feature directorial debut The Father was based on his award-wining 2012 play Le Père. Starring Oscar winners Olivia Colman and Anthony Hopkins, the film centers around a father and his daughter as they must deal with the father’s deteriorating memory. The film is currently nominated for six major Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay.
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