Paramount Pictures has set Russell Crowe to lead the mob thriller, American Son, based on Jacques Audiard’s French movie A Prophet.
The project was originally set up Sony Pictures but Paramount is now going full steam ahead on the film. American Son will be helmed by Andrew “Rapman” Onwubolu with Dennis Lehane writing the screenplay. Crowe will play a mob boss in the film and the movie will follow a man who builds a multiracial crime syndicate after falling under the control of a mobster (Crowe). Soon he takes down his mentor and earns a spot alongside the Italian and Russian mafias. In the original film, the protagonist (played by Tahar Rahim) is sent to a French prison where he becomes a kingpin.
The original film was highly praised and won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and was also nominated for a 2010 foreign-language film Oscar. Rapman, who is taking on directing duties for the remake, landed the job after his film Blue Story caught the eye of Paramount execs during the directing search.
