Stoner
After more weighty studio projects in Pan (2015) and The Darkest Hour (2017), Joe Wright moves more into prestige medium sized independent pic with Stoner – a book to film adaptation backed by Blumhouse. Coined as the Greatest American Novel You’ve Never Heard Of by the NYTimes, optioned in 2011 and packaged late last year, filming began in September with Casey Affleck and then Tommy Lee Jones being added to the period item.
Written by Andrew Bovell and based on the novel of the same name by John Williams, this follows the life of William Stoner (Affleck), a dirt-poor farmer turned academic, who emerges as an unlikely existential hero while making his way through the first half of the 20th Century.
Release Date/Prediction: Seeing that this doesn’t have a studio attached, we figure some news will drop in Cannes for sales, and not unlike some of his previous items, this has Telluride-Venice-TIFF written all over it.