Ewan McGregor will make his feature directorial debut with Lakeshore Entertainment’s adaptation of Philip Roth’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “American Pastoral,” the company announced Wednesday. McGregor will also star alongside Jennifer Connelly and Dakota Fanning.
“American Pastoral” follows Seymour “Swede” Levov, a legendary high school athlete, who grows up to marry a former beauty queen and inherits his father’s business. Swede’s seemingly perfect life shatters when his daughter rebels by becoming a revolutionary and committing a deadly act of political terrorism during the Vietnam War.
“Ewan’s talent goes far beyond his on-screen work and we’re excited to be working with a director who is as passionate as we are about telling the story of ‘American Pastoral,’” said Lakeshore CEO Tom Rosenberg.
“It’s a great privilege to be working with Lakeshore on Philip Roth’s astounding novel ‘American Pastoral.’ I’ve wanted to direct for years and wanted to wait until I found a story that I ‘had’ to tell and in this script I knew I had found that story. I’m looking forward to the challenge of being on both sides of the camera especially knowing I’ll be working with Jennifer and Dakota,” said McGregor.
John Romano adapted Roth’s acclaimed novel, and the film is being produced by Lakeshore’s Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi. Production is scheduled to start in September in Pittsburgh.
McGregor will next be seen in Rodrigo Garcia‘s “Last Days in the Desert” which premiered to rave reviews at Sundance and Susanna White’s “Our Kind of Traitor.” He’s represented by UTA, United Agents and Sloane, Offer.