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Tommy Lee Jones is set to star in STONER, the next project from director Joe Wright (Atonement). Blumhouse is producing and is backed by Cohen Media Group and Film4.
The film is based on the 1965 novel by John Williams and has been adapted by Andrew Bovell. The book wasn’t a hit when published, but gained a large following and became a bestseller after being reissued in 2003.
The novel’s synopsis reads: William Stoner is born at the end of the nineteenth century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces a scholar’s life, so different from the hardscrabble existence he has known. And yet as the years pass, Stoner encounters a succession of disappointments: marriage into a “proper” family estranges him from his parents; his career is stymied; his wife and daughter turn coldly away from him; a transforming experience of new love ends under threat of scandal. Driven ever deeper within himself, Stoner rediscovers the stoic silence of his forebears and confronts an essential solitude
Jones will be teaming up with last years Academy Award winner Casey Affleck, who was announced last month. Affleck will play the title role of William Stoner, a poor farmer who becomes an unlikely existential hero. Jones’ character is still unknown.
Producing the film is Jason Blum, Charles S. Cohen of CMG and Daniel Battsek of Film4. Ethan Hawke will serve as executive producer.
Jones is set to appear in the biography drama Shock and Awe and the action comedy Just Getting Started. He is represented by Creative Artists Agency.
This was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
April Dawn | Editorial Intern
