UPDATE: In an annoying, minutes-later addition, Deadline reports that Bruce Willis, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Alec Baldwin are all now aboard.
When a film pings back onto the news radar after what seems like an ice age in development, it's almost like seeing a Facebook notification about an old friend you'd all but forgotten existed. And while Edward Norton's attempt to adapt Jonathan Lethem's tome Motherless Brooklyn did briefly re-emerge back in 2014, it has made some actual movement forward thanks to the addition of Willem Dafoe.
The film version will switch up the time period for the book, sending Lethem’s main character Lionel Essrog (who Norton will play) back to 1954. He’s a lonely private detective afflicted with Tourette’s syndrome, who travels New York City trying to solve the murder of his mentor and only friend. Armed only with few clues and an obsessive mind, Lionel slowly unravels closely guarded secrets that have major ramifications. Dafoe is on as Paul, the brother of a powerful developer, who provides a useful stream of information about his abusive, scheming sibling for Essrog and the woman trying to bring him down.
Norton has been attempting to get this film made since he optioned it around the time he was nominated for an Oscar for American History X. After years of struggling to drum up interest and, more importantly, money, he now has the backing of Warner Bros. Norton remains in the director's chair, and has started cranking the cameras in New York already. Success!
Dafoe recently scored an Oscar nod for his performance in The Florida Project. He's at work playing Vincent Van Gogh in At Eternity's Gate and will be seen as Vulko in Aquaman, scheduled for release on 21 December this year.
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