We have a new Kathryn Bigelow film to look forward to. Bigelow will direct and produce an adaptation of the non-fiction book The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas, written by New York Times journalist Anand Giridharadas. Annapurna’s Megan Ellison in on board to produce. Ellison and Bigelow worked together — with great critical and commercial success — on Zero Dark Thirty. Tom Hardy is set to star. A screenwriter has not yet been hired.
The True American was secured by Annapurna after a “heated bidding war.” The Hollywood Reporter reveals that the film “hit the studios and movie companies mid-last week and by Friday started to generate considerable heat, with offers coming from Warner Bros., New Regency, and other companies.” It comes as no surprise that a new Bigelow film would attract such high interest — her two previous features, Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker, were critical darlings. Bigelow won an Oscar for directing The Hurt Locker (which also won Best Picture); she was the first — and remains the only — woman to ever win the award. Zero Dark Thirty also received a number of award noms, including Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
It’s great to see Bigelow and Ellison reteam. Annapurna’s projects from 2013 went on to earn 17 (!) Academy Award nominations, making Ellison the first woman to be recognized with two best Picture nominations in the same year.
A press release for the film describes its plot as such:
“THE TRUE AMERICAN meticulously reconstructs two lives that collided in
horrific fashion. In the charged, angry days after 9/11, self-styled “American
Terrorist” Mark Stroman murdered two immigrants in Texas, while a third man
survived being shot in the head during Stroman’s spree: Raisuddin Bhuiyan, a
Bangladesh Air Force veteran, was working at a Dallas-area convenience store as
he established himself in America. With Stroman identified and apprehended, the tale begins its tack toward
deeper emotional waters. THE TRUE AMERICAN is a richly detailed, affecting
account of two men bound, as it turns out, by more than just an act of
violence.”
