After Star Wars and Mission: Impossible both went rogue, another feature film will do so as well. In adaptation news, Variety reports the British novel Rogue Male is being turned into a feature with Benedict Cumberbatch set to star, as well as produce the story about a hunter who is tortured and left to die after he attempts to assassinate a dictator. He escapes, and is then hounded by enemy agents and the police in his rural hometown. The script is penned by Michael Lesslie, whose resume include Macbeth and Assassin’s Creed. Also producing with Cumberbatch is Lloyd Levin, Black Sheep Pictures’ Beatriz Levin and Branwen Prestwood Smith. This is not the first time Rogue Male has been adapted to the screen, as Fritz Lang brought it to life with his 1941 film Man Hunt.
In another exciting pairing, Aubrey Plaza is set to star alongside Elizabeth Olsen in director Matt Spicer‘s latest black comedy, Ingrid Goes West. The film concerns a Plaza as the titular Ingrid, who begins to obsessively trying to befriend a social media star (Olsen), moving West to pursue that dream. As expected, her behavior soon becomes a little too unsettling. The script is co-written by Spicer with David Branson Smith, and is produced by Jared Ian Goldman, producing brothers Tim and Trevor White, and Adam and Robert Mirels, along with Plaza. Plaza recently paired with Anna Kendrick in Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates, while Olsen teamed up with a large Marvel cast in Captain America: Civil War.
Lastly, Adam Wingard has massive buzz surrounding his Blair Witch sequel, but he also has the Netflix-distributed Death Note in the works, which has just added a new cast member. According to Mashable, Willem Dafoe has been added to a cast that already includes Nat Wolff in the lead, along with Shea Whigham and Margaret Qualley. Dafoe will lend his voice to a character named Ryuk the Shinigami, who drops the notebook which Wolff’s character picks up. This notebook kills whoever’s name is written in it, putting great power in the hands of a young boy. See a frightening rendering of Dafoe’s character below, based on the source material.
