After being attached to star in the adaptation of Philip Roth’s Pulitzer-winning novel American Pastoral since last summer, Ewan McGregor will now work double duty on the pic. In addition to tackling the lead role, the actor will also take up residence in the director’s chair for his filmmaking debut.
The story will revolve around McGregor’s character, Seymour “Swede” Levov. A legendary high school athlete who grows up to marry a former beauty queen and inherit his father’s business, Swede’s seemingly perfect life shatters when his daughter takes a rebellious turn by committing a deadly act of political terrorism during the Vietnam War. He’ll star alongside Jennifer Connolly as his wife and Dakota Fanning as his wayward daughter.
“It’s a great privilege to be working with Lakeshore on Phillip Roth’s astounding novel ‘American Pastoral.’” said McGregor. “I’ve wanted to direct for years and wanted to wait until I found a story that I ‘had’ to tell and in this script I knew I had found that story. I’m looking forward to the challenge of being on both sides of the camera especially knowing I’ll be working with Jennifer and Dakota.”
As referred to by the actor-director, Lakeshore Entertainment are producing the movie from a script penned by The Lincoln Lawyer scribe John Romano. For over a decade the film has been bubbling away in development with Salt helmer Philip Noyce attached to direct with Connolly, Paul Bettany and Evan Rachel Wood on board to star. Today’s news is the first notification of Noyce’s exit from American Pastoral, which is earmarked to commence filming in Pittsburgh this September.