As one of the busiest actors in Hollywood, you can never tell what project Jake Gyllenhaal will attach himself to next. Today, we've learned that the DONNIE DARKO alum is teaming up with John Lesher for a World War II drama entitled THE LAST AIRMAN. Recently, Amazon purchased the rights to the non-fiction book, titled The Lost Airman, A True Story of Escape from Nazi-Occupied France written by Seth Meyerowitz. In what we've learned from The Hollywood Reporter, Gyllenhaal has joined the adaptation as the project's producer and lead star. Joining Gyllenhaal in his production duties will be Riva Marker, his partner at the pair's NineStories label, and Oscar-winning producer John Lesher through his Le Grisbi Productions.
The film will be based on a series of recently declassified materials, which detail the true story of Arthur Meyerowitz, an American turret-gunner whose B-24 bomber was gunned down over Vichy France in 1943. While stowed away in the French countryside, Meyerowitz befriended Marcel Talliander, the founder of the legendary French resistance group Morhange, who helped shelter the man from the Gestapo through his secret network. After six months of hardships and barely evading capture, Meyerowitz escaped through a carefully orchestrated and elaborate plan that also involved R.F.W. Cleaver, one of the most accomplished British fighter pilots of the war.
While I don't consider myself to be much of a war buff, I am interested to see Gyllenhaal's next role in Bong Joon Ho's Netflix-released environmental adventure, OKJA, which is schedueled for a June 28th debut. In the film, a young girl by the name of Mija risks everything to prevent a genetically engineered super pig from becoming the main course on a menu for the world as presented by an all-powerful and evil corporation.
That being said, if THE LOST AIRMAN is half as compelling as some of the excerpts I've read from Meyerowitzes, I might have to make some time in my schedule for that one as well.
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