Jake Gyllenhaal in talks to star in identity thriller An Enemy

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

After detouring MOTOR CITY, Donnie Darko is set to square off with AN ENEMY…

True talk. Variety is reporting Jake Gyllenhaal is in negotiations to star in AN ENEMY, an adaptation of Jose Saramago’s novel “The Double.” The flick is one of those psychological identity thrillers where dude thinks he sees himself in another…doppleganger style. Word is PRISONERS helmer Denis Villeneuve will direct AN ENEMY, with Rhombus Media and Roxbury Pictures jointly producing.

Based on an Amazon synopsis of the novel, AN ENEMY (“The Double”) goes like this:

Tertuliano Máximo Afonso is a divorced, depressed history teacher. To lift his spirits, a colleague suggests he rent a certain video. Tertuliano watches the film, unimpressed. But during the night, when he is awakened by noises in his apartment, he goes into the living room to find that the VCR is replaying the video. He watches in astonishment as a man who looks exactly like him-or, more specifically, exactly like he did five years before, mustachioed and fuller in the face-appears on the screen. He sleeps badly.

Against his better judgment, Tertuliano decides to pursue his double. As he roots out the man’s identity, what begins as a whimsical story becomes a “wonderfully twisted meditation on identity and individuality” (The Boston Globe). Saramago displays his remarkable talent in this haunting tale of appearance versus reality.

Looks like, after a throng of lame-ass rom-coms, Gyllenhaal wants back into the dark side. How much cred dude has at this point is another matter altogether.