EXCLUSIVE: Amid a surfeit of horror projects heading to next week’s American Film Market, here instead comes a legit blue chip crime-drama-thriller in the shape of James Gray‘s next movie, Paper Tiger, which will star Oscar nominee Adam Driver, Emmy and Tony winner Jeremy Strong and Oscar winner Anne Hathaway.
This is the type of project buyers we’ve spoken to this week have been crying out for. Something elevated. Five of Gray’s films have competed for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Based on Gray’s original screenplay, the story is set to follow two brothers who pursue the American Dream—only to become entangled in a scheme that turns out to be too good to be true. As they try to navigate their way through an ever-more dangerous world of corruption and violence, they find themselves and their family brutally terrorized by the Russian “Mafiya.” Their bond begins to fray, and betrayal—once utterly unthinkable—now becomes all too possible.
The project takes Armageddon Time and Ad Astra director Gray back to his We Own The Night and Little Odessa roots. Filming is lined up for Q1, 2025.
The Veterans is representing international sales rights and introducing the project at the AFM next week. CAA Media Finance will handle the U.S. rights.
Leone Film Group will fully finance, with Raffaella Leone producing alongside Rodrigo Teixeira under his RT Features banner.
Driver has been nominated for two Oscars, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Tony Award. His performances include Marriage Story and BlacKkKlansman as well as television’s Girls. He recently completed production on Father, Mother, Sister, Brother and can currently be seen on stage at the Lortel Theater in Hold On To Me Darling.
Emmy, Golden Globe and Tony winner Strong can currently be seen in Ali Abassi’s drama The Apprentice, playing Roy Cohn. The Succession star is currently in production on Scott Cooper’s upcoming Springsteen biopic, Deliver Me From Nowhere. He made his return to Broadway this spring in An Enemy Of The People, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play.
Oscar, Golden Globe and Emmy winner Hathaway is well known for Les Misérables, The Dark Knight Rises, Brokeback Mountain, The Devil Wears Prada, and most recently The Idea of You. She is currently in post-production on David Lowery’s Mother Mary for A24 and David Robert Mitchell‘s Flowervale Street for Warner Bros. She will next reprise her role in The Princess Diaries 3 alongside Julie Andrews for Disney.
Vincent Maraval and Kim Fox’s The Veterans has recently handled Jacques Audiard’s Cannes winner Emilia Perez starring Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez; Walter Salles’ acclaimed I’m Still Here with Fernanda Montenegro; and Luca Guadagnino’s Venice drama Queer starring Daniel Criag.
Gray is represented by CAA and Jackoway Austen. Driver is repped by MWE and Sloane, Offer. Strong by WME, Suger23, and Hansen, Jacobson. Hathaway is represented by CAA, Entertainment 360 and Sloane, Offer.
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