The adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel American Pastoral seems to have found its star to go along with director Philip Noyce (Salt, Rabbit Proof Fence), who’s reportedly been trying to get the project off the ground for years now. Ewan McGregor has signed up to take on the lead role of Seymour “Swede” Levov, a legendary high school athlete who appeared to have the perfect life with a former beauty queen for a wife and his father’s business inherited. The image of the perfect life starts to fall apart when his daughter commits a deadly act of political terrorism during the Vietnam War.

The results of the long-gestating film will, of course, speak for themselves, but if positive, it could mean two more films to follow. American Pastoral is part of Roth’s post-WWII trilogy, the second and third parts named I Married A Communist and Humain Stain, respectively.

Noyce is helming the picture, and he has a long resume of critically-acclaimed adaptations, including The Bone Collector (1999), Rabbit Proof Fence (2002), and The Quiet American (2002), as well as the two Harrison Ford-led Jack Ryan movies (Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger). His most recent film starred Angelina Jolie in the big-budget action drama Salt (2010). Noyce has a number of projects in development, and it seems American Pastoral will most likely be his next project with his lead star already signed up.

McGregor is currently filming thriller Our Kind Of Traitor. His next appearance will likely be Rodrigo Garcia’s Last Days In The Desert expected to release some time later this year. Early 2015, we’ll see him in David Koepp’s action comedy Mortdecai and Gavin O’Connor’s action western Jane Got A Gun.