Ben Stiller To Direct Oscar Isaac In Lionsgate’s ‘London’; Eric Roth To Adapt Jo Nesbo Story

EXCLUSIVE: Ben Stiller has been set to direct London, a Lionsgate feature film based on a new short story/high-concept thriller by bestselling crime writer Jo Nesbo. Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth is adapting, and Oscar Isaac will star and produce with Stiller.

Stiller is coming off winning a DGA Award for directing the Showtime limited series Escape at Dannemora. Isaac will next star in the Denis Villenueve-directed Dune, and for Paul Schrader in The Card Counter. As for Roth, his adaptation of the David Grann book Killers of the Flower Moon has Martin Scorsese poised to direct Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, with Apple financing, Paramount distributing and Imperative producing.

Isaac was out front of this one, obtaining rights to the story as a producer under his Mad Gene Media banner in competition, and then getting the dream team of Stiller and Roth. Isaac and Red Hour Productions’ Stiller will produce with Nicky Weinstock and Jason Spire, the latter of whom manages Isaac and sometimes produces with him. Nesbo will be exec producer along with Niclas Salomonsson.

Isaac and Stiller are repped by WME; Isaac is managed by Inspire Entertainment while Stiller just signed with 3 Arts.