Norman… Is That You?: Ben Stiller & Colin Farrell Topline Andrew Haigh’s “Belly of the Beast”

Before the film world descends onto the Croisette the floodgates have opened up for a flurry of film trade news and we have another high-profile project we’ll be keeping tabs on with Andrew Haigh cementing his next project. Deadline confirms that Ben Stiller and Colin Farrell have been tapped for Belly of the Beast – and that mk2 films, UTA Independent Film Group, CAA Media Finance and Village Roadshow Pictures have teamed for sales. The book to film adaptation of Jerome Loving’s nonfiction book, Jack and Norman: A State-Raised Convict and the Legacy of Norman Mailer’s ‘The Executioner’s Song.’ Colin and Claudine Farrell, Alison Rosenzweig and Michael Gaeta are producing. Looks the the untitled Leonardo da Vinci set up at Universal will have to wait.

Written by Haigh and Alexis Jolly adapted, this will tell the true story of the unlikely friendship between notorious literary titan Norman Mailer (Stiller) and his protégé, Jack Henry Abbott (Farrell). Bolstered by Mailer’s mentorship, Abbott is paroled after nearly a decade in prison; he gains instant popularity among the literary elite but struggles with life on the outside. When Mailer, creatively frustrated and envious of Jack’s rising star, turns his back on his infamous protégé, Jack spirals – committing an unforgivable act of violence in a New York City diner just six weeks after his release.