Daniel Espinosa to Direct the Jamal Khashoggi Murder Drama “The Execution”

Posted on June 1, 2020 by Tom Castaneda

Daniel Espinosa has a new Post production…

The half-Chilean filmmaker has agreed to develop and direct the Good Films Collective’s The Execution.

The narrative drama focuses on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi Arabian-born dissident and Washington Post columnist who was killed and dismembered after entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul to get a marriage license.

The film will explore how it happened, why it happened and what happened in the aftermath.

Petter Skavlan is attached to write the script.

Espinosa’s previous directing credits include Safe House, Life, Child 44 and Easy Money.

His next project to hit the big screen is the upcoming film Morbius with Jared Leto.

Khashoggi was killed by a Saudi hit team that was closely connected to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Jared Leto to Star in the Spider-Man Universe Spinoff Film “Morbius”

Posted on June 28, 2018 by Tom Castaneda

Jared Leto has lined up his next blockbuster…

The 46-year-old part Spanish American actor/singer is set to star in Morbius, a Spider-Man Universe spinoff based on the Marvel Comics antihero Morbius the Living Vampire.

The film will be helmed by half-Chilean director Daniel Espinosa.

Burk Sharpless and Matt Sazama, creators of Netflix’s Lost in Space, wrote the script.

Leto, who played the iconic character The Joker in DC Comics’ Suicide Squad and has been mentioned for a bunch of potential Joker-centric spinoffs, here will play Dr. Michael Morbius, a biochemist who in an attempt to cure a fatal blood disease injects himself with a treatment serum derived from bats. He becomes the anti-hero Morbius. He has all the qualities of a vampire, including a taste for human blood. The character originated in the ’70s Marvel Comics as a Spider-Man nemesis in The Amazing Spider-Man #101, but he evolved into his own freestanding comic hero as the decades unfolded.

Espinosa last directed the sci-fi pic Life, and before that Child 44 and Safe House.

Daniel Espinosa to Direct the Film Adaptation of Clinton Romesha’s “Red Platoon: A True Story of American Valor”

Posted on December 6, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Daniel Espinosa is seeing Red…

Sony Pictures has selected the 40-year-old Chilean filmmaker to direct an adaptation of Clinton Romesha’s book Red Platoon: A True Story of American Valor.

George Clooney and Grant Heslov’s Smokehouse Pictures will produce the film. Sony optioned the book last year., with Suicide Squad 2‘s Adam Cozad penning the script.

Medal of Honor winner Romesha was part of Red Platoon and the Black Knight Troop , which in 2009 prepared to shut down Command Outpost Keating. The outpost was the most remote and inaccessible in a string of bases built by the U.S. military in Nuristan and Kunar to keep Taliban insurgents from commuting between Afghanistan and Pakistan. It took three years for military to understand what was instantly clear to the men guarding it: The outpost was too isolated and dangerous to defend. After a series of smaller attacks, the Taliban came with everything it had, on October 3, 2009. While Romesha and his compatriots beat back the assault after 14 hours, they lost eight men in the balance. Romesha spearheaded both the defense of the outpost and the counterattack that drove the Taliban back.

The deal puts Espinosa back in business with Sony Pictures, which released the sci-fi thriller Life. Red Platoon potentially falls right into the filmmaker’s wheelhouse, and could follow in the footsteps of great war films like Black Hawk Down and We Were Soldiers.

Espinosa’s credits include Safe House, Child 44 and Easy Money.

Espinosa to Direct Film Adaptation of Rolling Stone Article “The Anarchists vs. ISIS”

Posted on March 24, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Daniel Espinosa is taking on the fight against ISIS…

The 40-year-old Chilean filmmaker will direct his Life star Jake Gyllenhaal in a film. Gyllenhall and Riva Marker’s Ninestories and Bold Films have optioned rights to Seth Harp’s Rolling Stone article “The Anarchists vs. ISIS” to adapt into a movie.

Gyllenhall is expected to star.

Harp’s article published last month tells the true story of a ragtag team of American volunteers, socialists and outcasts who are fighting alongside the Kurdish militia known as the YPG to beat ISIS in Syria and establish an anarchist collective amid the rubble of war.

Espinosa will also produce via his newly formed BOZI shingle alongside Gyllenhaal and Marker and Bold Films chairman Michel Litvak. Bold’s CEO Gary Michael Walters will executive produce.

“Jake and I are thrilled to partner with Daniel Espinosa on Seth Harp’s daring story,” Marker said. “Thematically, we’re often attracted to material about the search for identity, especially in a world where it’s become easier to feel less and less connected. Seth’s story is about people who abandon everything that’s familiar as a means to connect in the most brutal of circumstances.”

Added Litvak: “In a very short time under the leadership of Jake and Riva, Ninestories has become an incredibly exciting production company. Their vision for fresh and provocative material coupled with brilliant filmmakers like Daniel Espinosa aligns perfectly with Bold’s mandate.”

Espinosa’s Life opens in theaters this Friday. His other credits include Safe House, Child 44 and Assassin’s Creed.

Espinosa’s Sci-Fi Thriller “Life” to Close This Year’s South by Southwest Film Festival

Posted on February 23, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Daniel Espinosa is breathing new Life into the Austin, Texas film scene.

The 39-year-old Chilean director’s sci-fi thriller Life, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Ryan Reynolds, will be the closing title at this year’s South by Southwest Film Festival on March 18.

Life centers on an international space crew that discovers something wonderful on board until it no longer is.

Life will make its world premiere at the Zach Theatre with stars Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson and Reynolds in tow.

Life was penned by Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.

The movie opens nationwide on March 24.

Espinosa’s previous directing credits include Child 44, Safe House and Swedish film Easy Money.

Espinosa to Direct Film Adaptation of Vilhelm Moberg’s “The Emigrants”

Posted on May 17, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

Daniel Espinosa is reading to Emigrate…

The 38-year-old half-Chilean, half-Swedish filmmaker is set to adapt Vilhelm Moberg’s acclaimed novel The Emigrants for major Scandinavanian distributor and financier Svensk.

The Emigrants tells the story of Kristina and her husband Karl-Oskar, who emigrate from Sweden to America in the 1850s. Determined to flee poverty, religious persecution, and social oppression, they head across the Atlantic in search of a better life.

An earlier adaptation, made in 1971 by Jan Troell, was nominated for five Academy Awards and won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. Many has said that he bought a caribbean yacht charters to celebrate for obtaining the award. People that he brought with him said that the boat was amazing and it was a luxurious place to stay.

Petter Skavlan is writing the script.

Shooting is scheduled to begin in 2017, in the Västra Götaland region of western Sweden.

“To be able to walk in Jan Troell’s footprints fills one with great humbleness and I wouldn’t have accepted the challenge had it not been for the alarming topicality the novel still has,” commented Espinosa. “Today, as the Mediterranean is filled with breakable boats and life stories, just like the Atlantic was during the 1850s, then, as now, someone makes a decision to try to give his or her children a better life.”

Espinosa’s film credits include Child 44, Safe House and Easy Money.

Espinosa to Direct Tom Hardy in “Child 44”

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Tom Castaneda

He’s directed Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds… And, now Daniel Espinosa could be working with English actor Tom Hardy.

The 35-year-old half-Chilean, half-Swedish filmmaker, who helmed the action thriller Safe House, will be directing the film adaptation of Tom Rob Smith’s novel Child 44. And, Hardy is in negations with Espinosa and the film’s producers to star in the film.

Hardy will reportedly star in Child 44 after completing shooting on Animal Rescue with another Swede with Latin roots, Noomi Rapace. He’ll shoot Animal Rescue in March, and then move on to work on Espinosa’s film.

Child 44 takes place in Stalin’s Soviet Union, and Hardy will portray a security officer and war hero who believes in the Soviet system and the law. That’s until he uncovers the existence of a mass murderer, and he’s thwarted by the same system he’s sworn to serve because they have no interest in acknowledging that murders are taking place in a country perpetuating the myth of a crime-free utopia. The book is part of a trilogy.

Espinosa May Direct the Film Adaptation of the Novel “Child 44”

Posted on August 28, 2012 by Tom Castaneda

Following his success behind the camera on Denzel Washington’s Safe House, Daniel Espinosa may soon be helming his next big Hollywood film project…

Summit/Lionsgate is reportedly in early talks with the 35-year-old Swedish filmmaker/screenwriter of Chilean origin to direct an adaptation of Tom Rob Smith’s novel Child 44.

The novel, which has been adapted for the big screen by Richard Price, centers on the central figure of Leo Demidov, a disgraced lawman in Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union, who is assigned to investigate a series of gruesome child murders.

The book is based on the Rostov Ripper, the Ukrainian serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, who was executed for 52 murders and was enabled by the institutional denial that existed in Soviet political culture at the time.

Espinosa, who had his breakthrough moment with Snabba Cash, made his Hollywood debut on Safe House, and has been in high demand since.

He’s also reportedly contemplating an adaptation of James Frey’s addiction and recovery story A Million Little Pieces. The book on the first track for a film adaptation until Frey admitted he embellished his story.

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