EXCLUSIVE: César winner Matthias Schoenaerts (Rust and Bone) and Cannes best actress winner Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds) will star in The Writer, set in the underground graffiti art world.
Schoenaerts will portray “a battle-scarred New York graffiti legend who is thrust into the global spotlight when his painting, stolen from a Paris subway tunnel, ignites a Sotheby’s frenzy—and a war for his crown.”
The film marks the directorial debut of writer-director Matt Cirulnick, who penned the NYC crime and hip-hop film Paid In Full. Production is slated for New York in 2027. Obsession outfit Capstone Global is launching international sales on the project at the AFM this week.
Schoenaerts and Kruger last shared the screen in Alice Winocour’s Disorder, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.
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Marina Grasic, Jonathan Avildsen, and Jason Taylor are producing. Gary Lucchesi, Christian Mercuri, and Ruzanna Kegeyan serve as executive producers.
New Yorker Avildsen, the son of Oscar-winning filmmaker John G. Avildsen (Rocky), has been part of the city’s graffiti culture for forty years. He will create and curate the film’s art and assemble real graffiti writers to contribute.
“As a lifelong New Yorker, this is a world for which I’ve always had a fierce passion,” said Cirulnick. “Jonathan Avildsen and Matthias are key to making it authentically— and with Diane, it’s a filmmaker’s dream.”
“Graffiti is a global language,” said producer Jason Taylor. “It’s in every city on earth and it’s never had its definitive modern film.”
“In Matthias and Diane we have two of the finest actors in cinema today to carry this original film,” said producer Marina Grasic.
“The dialogue, the characters, rang so true to me,” said producer and technical advisor Jonathan Avildsen. “I’m excited to help bring this script to life authentically.”
Cirulnick is repped by Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Gersh. Schoenaerts is repped by CAA. Kruger is repped by WME, Altitude Management and Untitled Entertainment
