We’ve known him as Harry Potter for the past decade, (when he was given the part over American actor Liam Aiken) but when the eighth and final film was released last year, Daniel traded in his wand for dancing shoes in the Broadway hit How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He has returned to the big screen as a young lawyer in the thriller The Woman in Black, in theaters now.
Continuing his genre spree, Daniel Radcliffe is set to star in Alexandre Aja‘s supernatural fantasy-thriller Horns for Red Granite Pictures and Mandalay Pictures.
Earlier this year, the Harry Potter star’s The Woman in Black turned into a sleeper hit at the box office, grossing north of $127 million worldwide.
Horns is based on Joe Hill‘s best-selling novel. Aja will direct from an adapted screenplay by Keith Bunin.
Radcliffe will play Ig Perrish, the lead suspect in the violent rape and killing of his girlfriend. Hung over from a night of hard drinking, Ig awakens one morning to find horns starting to grow from his head. Their power drives people to confess sins and give in to selfish impulses — an effective tool in his quest to discover the circumstances of his girlfriend’s death and for exacting revenge.
Hill’s rock ‘n’ roll-infused dark fantasy explores why bad things happen to good people and what the loss of true love can do to a man. The book was on The New York Times best-seller list for six weeks and has become an international best-seller as well.
“After reading Joe Hill’s cult book, I couldn’t resist temptation to dive into the devilish underworld and reinvent a universal myth,” Aja said. “Horns is a wild ride of sin and crime, with a love story in its heart.”
Riza Aziz and Joey McFarland‘s Red Granite will finance Horns and co-produce with Mandalay. Producers are Aziz, McFarland, Mandalay Pictures president Cathy Schulman and Adam Stone. Hill will executive produce with Red Granite’s Joe Gatta.
Additional casting is underway, with principal photography set to begin this fall. Red Granite Pictures’ international sales arm will handle foreign sales for the film.
Red Granite is the production and financing company behind Martin Scorsese’s next film The Wolf of Wall Street starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
