Filmmaker Janicza Bravo (Zola, Lemon, Atlanta) is teaming up with Annapurna to write and direct the series adaptation of A Suspense Novelist’s Trail of Deceptions, with Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler, Brokeback Mountain, Prisoners) set to star (via Deadline). The adaptation is based on Ian Parker’s New Yorker article that was published in February 2019.
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Parker’s story explores the complex life of former book editor Dan Mallory, whose debut psychological thriller, The Woman in the Window, written under the pseudonym A.J. Finn, was number one on the New York Times bestseller list, the first debut novel to do so in twelve years.
Bravo’s series adaptation will follow an unreliable narrator who nurses brain tumors he does not have and mourns family members who are not dead while preying on people’s sympathy to get away with almost anything.
“What may have started out as my dog ate homework turns into my mother died of cancers, my brother took his life and I have a double doctorate,” said Bravo. “Our protagonist is white, male, and pathological. There is a void in him and he fills it by duping people. He’s a scammer. The series examines white identity and how we as an audience participate in making room for this behavior. Getting to partner with Annapurna and Nine Stories is a gift and I am most thrilled for what lies ahead.”
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Bravo will co-write the pilot with Brian Savelson, and will also executive produce alongside Gyllenhaal and Riva Marker for Nine Stories. Annapurna’s Megan Ellison, Sue Naegle, Sammy Scher, and Susan Goldberg will also serve as executive producers, with Savelson and Parker acting as co-executive producers.
(Photo by Jeff Vespa/WireImage via Getty Images & Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images)
