We’re more used to see him playing fictional folk in films such as this year’s Mad Max: Fury Road. But Nicholas Hoult is about to tackle a very different challenge – playing author JD Salinger, a real, if largely reclusive, person for writer/ director Danny Strong in **Rebel In The Rye.
Strong has adapted the script from Kenneth Slawenski’s biography of Salinger, JD Salinger: A Life., and the film aims to chronicle the life and mind of the secretive writer, including how he brought iconic tome The Catcher In The Rye from the depths of his brain. It’ll look at his youth, his time spent in conflict during World War II, finding love, enduring loss and years of rejection letters from The New Yorker, which fuelled chronic writer’s block but also helped him find his voice.
Black Label Media is backing the film, with the distribution rights set to be touted at the Toronto International Film Festival, which kicks off next week. Strong, who got his start as an actor, has become an accomplished writer of both films and TV, scoring two Emmy Awards along the way. He’s co-created TV hit Empire with Lee Daniels and directed an episode of the show. He’ll make his film directing debut with Rebel.
Hoult has Britpop music marketing satire Kill Your Friends due out on November 6, followed by X-Men: Apocalypse on May 19 next year. He’s also worked on Dark Places and Drake Doremus’ Equals, neither of which have UK release dates yet.