The Wagner/Cuban Company’s Magnolia Pictures announced today that they have acquired US rights to The Double, the new film directed and co-written by Richard Ayoade (Submarine), starring Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) and Mia Wasikowska (Jane Eyre).
Targeting both humor and emotion, the film’s dystopian vision is loosely based on the novella by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and features a supporting cast that includes Wallace Shawn, Yasmin Paige, Noah Taylor, James Fox, Cathy Moriarty, Chris O’Dowd, Sally Hawkins, Craig Roberts and Paddy Considine. Co-written by Avi Korine, The Double was produced by Amina Dasmal and Robin Fox, with executive producers Michael Caine, Graeme Cox, Tessa Ross and Nigel Williams.
Eisenberg plays Simon, a timid, isolated man who’s overlooked at work, scorned by his mother, and ignored by the woman of his dreams (Wasikowska). The arrival of a new co-worker, James (also played by Eisenberg), serves to upset the balance. James is both Simon’s exact physical double and his opposite – confident, charismatic and good with women. To Simon’s horror, James slowly starts taking over his life.
Said Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles, “’The Double’ is an incredibly assured, confident and visionary film. Richard Ayoade is a talent to be reckoned with—he firmly establishes himself as an dynamic and important auteur with this uncannily entertaining, stylish and compulsively watchable film.”
Producer Amina Dasmal states “Magnolia’s proven ability to work so well with the leading filmmakers and original voices of our time, makes them the perfect partner for this urgent film”
Producer Robin Fox adds “Magnolia’s passion for the film and for Richard’s work give us a great comfort the film will be handled with strength and thought needed to give it the platform it richly deserves”
Magnolia is eyeing a 2014 theatrical release for The Double, which is a Film4 and BFI presentation of an Alcove Entertainment production in association with Protagonist Pictures.
