EXCLUSIVE: The Whiplash Oscar winner is boarding the David Ayer directed Paramount Pictures production Heart of the Beast opposite Brad Pitt.
It’s the second time that J.K. Simmons as worked with Ayer after the 2005 Christian Bale crime drama Harsh Times, and it’s the third time he’s starred in a Pitt movie after 2001’s The Mexican and the Coen Brothers George Clooney-Frances McDormand 2008 comedy caper Burn After Reading.
Deadline first told you about Heart of the Beast.
Cameron Alexander, who penned the script, will executive produce. The movie follows a former Army Special Forces Soldier and his retired combat dog who battle for survival after a plane crash deep in the unforgiving Alaskan wilderness.
Damien Chazelle and Olivia Hamilton are producing under their Wild Chickens Productions banner as part of their first-look deal with the studio. Ayer is producing under his Crave Films banner, with Temple Hill Entertainment, and 2x Oscar winner Pitt is producing under his Plan B banner.
Richard Raymond is co-producing.
Simmons won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, Golden Globe and SAG Award for his turn as an acerbic music professor in 2014’s Whiplash. He is known for his role as J. Jonah Jameson in Sony’s Spider-Man movies, both the Sam Raimi and Jon Watts’ titles. Other feature credits include La La Land, Juno, Saturday Night, the Dwyane Johnson-Chris Evans Christmas movie Red One, as well as Aaron Sorkin’s Being the Ricardos in which he played William Frawley, receiving his second Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. The actor is repped by Gersh.
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