Lleju Productions has optioned rights to Jess Walter’s satirical novel The Zero and hired director Derrick Borte following the world premiere in Toronto last autumn of The Joneses.

Brandon Boyce, whose credits include Wicker Park and Apt Pupil, will adapt the story of a man who is hired by the government to carry out a bizarre assignment following a terrorist attack.

The company has also acquired the rights to Grandma’s Bingo Hustle by first-time writer Fat, about two conmen who meet their match when their plan to con local bingo parlours is foiled by the widow of a notorious gangster.

Lleju is currently in post-production on After.Life starring Liam Neeson and Justin Long, Roadkill with Paz Vega, Unthinkable starring Samuel L Jackson, Michael Sheen, Brandon Routh and Carrie-Anne Moss, and The Chameleon starring Emilie De Ravin, Famke Janssen, Nick Stahl, and Ellen Barkin.

Also on the slate is Jerusalema, about a young hoodlum’s rise from small-time criminal to a powerful crime lord during the turbulent years before and after the fall of apartheid.

Founder and president Bill Perkins launched the Texas-based LLeju in 2008.

Topics