The Danish thriller The Guilty is getting remade for American audiences. Variety reports that Bold Films and Nine Stories have acquired the rights, and are developing a remake. Jake Gyllenhaal, who runs Nine Stories with producer Riva Marker, is attached to star.
The Guilty follows a police officer who, while under investigation, is demoted to desk work at an emergency call center. When he receives a terrified phone call from a kidnapped woman, he must battle his internal demons in order to save her.
So far, it’s won the world cinema audience award at Sundance this year, and was also named one of the top five foreign language films of 2018 by the National Board of Review. The Guilty is Denmark’s foreign-language Oscar entry and has also been nominated for best screenwriter and best actor at the European Film Awards.
Gyllenhaal and Marker will produce the remake for Nine Stories, alongside Bold Films’ Michel Litvak, Gary Michael Walters, David Litvak, and Svetlana Metkina. The original film’s co-writer/director Gustav Möller and producer Lina Flint will serve as executive producers. The Dutch movie was the first production from Spring, the new talent development initiative backed by TrustNordisk.
“We saw The Guilty at Sundance and were blown away. Möller’s film masterfully weaves tension into an acute character study, and is exactly the kind of material that Nine Stories is excited to develop. We are honored to be able to adapt it for American audiences alongside Bold Films,” said Gyllenhaal and Marker in a statement.
Gyllenhaal made waves last week confirming his role in the upcoming Spider-Man: Far From Home via Instagram post. He’ll also reteam with Nightcrawler director Dan Gilroy in Velvet Buzzsaw, which will also premiere at Sundance before hitting Netflix in February 2019.
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