Director Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan) and Brendan Fraser (The Mummy) are teaming up on the upcoming film The Whale for A24, an adaptation of MacArthur-winning playwright Samuel D. Hunter’s 2012 play of the same name about a morbidly obese recluse man.
The play is a story of a 600-pound middle-aged man named Charlie in the outskirts of Mormon Country, Idaho, who hides away in his home, eating himself to death. He is desperate to reconnect with his long-time estranged daughter, who he abandoned for his gay lover that died later, and so he turned to compulsive eating out of grief. When he finally gets in touch with his daughter, he finds her viciously sharp-tongued and wildly unhappy teenager.
Hunter told Deadline, “Adapting my play into a screenplay has been a real labor of love for me. This story is deeply personal, and I’m very thankful it will have the chance to reach a wider audience,” said Hunter. I’ve been a fan of Darren’s ever since I saw Requiem for a Dream when I was a college freshman writing my first plays, and I’m so grateful that he’s bringing his singular talent and vision to this film.”
Fraser recently was on FX’s Trust, and Aronofsky hasn’t directed a film since 2017 horror/thriller Mother starring Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem.
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