From the man who’s earned a Best Director nomination for each of his three previous films, THR reports that Stephen Daldry is set to direct Jonathan Safran Foer’s 2005 novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. The book is tailor-made for Daldry’s flair for weaving narratives with cryptic back-stories told from multiple points of view — and it all revolves around Oskar!
The 2005 book centers on Oskar Schell, a nine-year-old amateur inventor, jewelry designer, astrophysicist, tambourine player and pacifist, as he searches New York for the lock that matches a mysterious key left by his father when he was killed in the September 11 attacks. Eric Roth, who last took on “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” penned the adaptation.
Scott Rudin, king of the high-brow adaptations, is producing “Close,” which will be a Paramount and Warner Bros. co-production.
THR notes that casting the role of young Oskar is crucial, but points out Daldry has a knack for tapping emerging talent, as he did with Jamie Bell in Billy Elliot and David Kross in The Reader.