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Two-time Oscar nominee Viggo Mortensen will hunt down the Unabomber in IM Global’s thriller UNABOMB, the Tracking Board has confirmed.
Robert Lorenz will direct from a script by Randy Brown, who adapted the book Unabomber by Jim Freeman, Terry Turchie and Donald Max Noel. Lorenz and Brown previously worked together on the Clint Eastwood-Amy Adams movie Trouble with the Curve.
Mortensen will play FBI agent Jim Freeman, who led one of the largest manhunts in history as he pursued the domestic terrorist known as the Unabomber, a man responsible for 16 bombings over the course of two decades. As Freeman and his unconventional team narrow down the suspects and get closer to Ted Kaczynski, the deadly attacks become personal.
Mortensen is a fantastic actor who doesn’t work nearly often enough, so I’m excited to see him tackle this kind of role, especially because I love these kinds of movies. Here’s hoping Lorenz has a little David Fincher in him, because Zodiac is really the model for this type of true crime tale.
IM Global is fully financing Unabomb, and the company’s Greg Shapiro is producing with Lorenz and Michele Weisler (The Ring). Production is expected to start in January.
Mortensen is coming off an Oscar nomination for his turn in Captain Fantastic, while Lorenz has three Oscar nominations of his own for producing American Sniper, Mystic River and Letters from Iwo Jima. Shapiro actually has a little gold statue himself, having produced The Hurt Locker.
At Cannes, IM Global will also be shopping the Johnny Depp dramedy Richard Says Goodbye and Brian De Palma’s thriller Domino starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau and Christina Hendricks. The company’s John Zois negotiated the Unabomb deal with UTA, which represents U.S. rights as well as Mortensen, who is also repped by the Rawlins Company.
Mortensen’s casting was first reported by Screen Daily.
Jeff Sneider | Editor in Chief
