Kevin Wignall‘s 2004 novel For the Dogs, “about a solitary assassin who helps a college girl exact revenge for the murder of her parents and brother,” has attracted a rather prestigious group of names for Sierra/Affinity’s in-the-works film adaptation. Starting at the top, Phillip Noyce, who last directed the Angelina Jolie-starrer Salt before going on to do TV work for a couple of years (which included episodes of Revenge and Luck), has signed on to helm the project. Meanwhile, Sam Worthington, who’s had a sort of hit-and-miss run since leading James Cameron‘s Avatar, has been pegged as the project’s star. [THR]
Perhaps most exciting of all, though, is the screenwriter: Oren Moverman, the immensely promising Israeli filmmaker behind such indie achievements as The Messenger and Rampart, will be adapting Wignall’s novel. And those are merely his credits as director: his screenwriting résumé, from Jesus’ Son to Married Life to Todd Haynes‘s I’m Not There, is full of work that’s diverse and accomplished in equal measure. I can’t say I’m at all familiar with Wignall’s source material — check out the details over at Amazon — but I have to think that Moverman will do as good a job as possible.
The Messenger and Rampart both showed a searing capability to capture a male psyche, and hopefully that trait will carry over here, giving Worthington a role that could challenge him in revealing ways. With these three significant names already on-board — and an apparently promising female role that still needs to be filled — I’d be surprised if Berlin Film Festival, where the film will be shopped, doesn’t produce a herd of buyers interested in getting their claws on this project.
Have you read Wignall’s novel? Do you think Worthington could carry this material well?