CANNES – Chiwetel Ejiofor and Gwyneth Paltrow are set to star in The Secret in Their Eyes for director-writer Billy Ray and IM Global.
The long-gestating crime thriller, a remake of the Oscar-winning film El Secreto de Sus Ojos, was previously set up at Warner Bros. Stuart Ford‘s IM Global has breathed new life into the movie by coming aboard to produce and finance, and will shop the project to foreign buyers at the Cannes Film Market. CAA arranged financing and is representing domestic rights.
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Mark Johnson is producing Secret in Their Eyes, a revenge tale about a former MI-5 agent (Ejiofor) who is obsessed with an unsolved murder. He goes to work for the FBI in Boston, but as he inches closer to solving the crime, he uncovers a shocking truth that will shed a terrifying new light on past events. Ray wrote the adapted screenplay.
“Billy has written a wonderfully intelligent, twisting screenplay, and we’re lucky enough to have attached two world-class acting talents at the top of their game. We’re confident of bringing further great cast onboard as we move toward production,” Ford said.
Added Johnson: “The thought of combining the originality of the original film with the talent of Billy Ray and the support of IM Global is irresistible.”
IM Global boasts one of this year’s strongest Cannes slate in terms of new projects. It will be selling Gravity screenwriter Jonas Cuaron‘s thriller Forsaken, starring Gael Garcia Bernal; Atom Egoyan‘s Remember, starring Christopher Plummer and Martin Landau; and Eran Creevy‘s Autobahn, starring Nicholas Hoult, Felicity Jones, Anthony Hopkins and Ben Kingsley.
The deals with Ejiofor and Paltrow were negotiated by Ford and Matt Jackson, IM Global’s president of production. They’ll serve as executive producers alongside Juan Jose Campanella, director of the original Argentine film.
Ray is repped by CAA and Management 360; Ejiofor is repped by CAA and Markham, Froggatt and Irwin; and Paltrow is repped by United Talent Agency and Brillstein Entertainment Partners.
