James McAvoy and Claire Foy will star in a thriller about a father’s missing child called “My Son” for STXfilms that’s an English-language remake of the 2017 French film of the same name, the studio announced Monday.
Christian Carion, who directed the original “My Son” starring Guillaume Canet and Mélanie Laurent, will also direct McAvoy and Foy in the remake. STX has closed the rights to distribute the film in North America and the UK, as well as Italy, Benelux, Latin America, Spain, Australia and China.
“My Son” stars McAvoy as a man searching for his missing son in the town where his ex-wife (Foy) now lives. But McAvoy will go about filming the project in an unusual way: he will not be given a script or dialogue, only the basic aspects of the story, and he will have to improvise and react to reach moment as it unfolds, all as a means of helping him better play a man whose life is clouded by mystery. The rest of the cast and crew however will be aware of the scenes, and Carion directed his original film using the same improvisational experiment for his lead.
Production on “My Son” hopes to begin filming in early November in Scotland. “My Son” will be produced by Carion, Laure Irrman for Une Hirondelle, Vincent Maraval and Brahim Chioua for Wild Bunch International, Rebecca O’Brien for Sixteen Films, and Marc Butan for Mad River Pictures.
“We’re thrilled to be working with Christian to create ‘My Son’ for worldwide audiences,” Adam Fogelson, STXfilms Motion Picture Group chairman, said in a statement. “James will be doing the detective work of the film in real-time, on camera, to create real tension for this thriller. We like to support bold and innovative storytelling like ‘My Son,’ and Claire could not be a more spectacular or exciting choice for this film which is certain to thrill audiences.”
Mad River International represents the film’s foreign rights.
McAvoy most recently starred in the HBO and BBC series “His Dark Materials” and in “It: Chapter Two.” Foy in 2018 starred in “The Girl in the Spider’s Web” and “First Man,” and she’ll next be seen in the biopic “Louis Wain” opposite Benedict Cumberbatch. Carion directed the Oscar-nominated foreign film “Joyeux Noel” and last directed “My Son” in 2017.
McAvoy is represented by UTA, United Agents and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern. Foy is represented by UTA and Independent Talent Group in the UK. Carion is represented by Yoann de Birague & Associés.