Jake Gyllenhaal To Play Leonard Bernstein in New Bio-Pic THE AMERICAN

Deadline has reported that stage and film star Jake Gyllenhaal will produce and star as legendary composer Leonard Bernstein in a new biopic titled The American.

The screenplay will be adapted from Humphrey Burton's biography of Bernstein by screenwriter Michael Mitnick. Cary Joji Fukunaga will direct.

According to Deadline, the story will unfold in five movements, like a symphony, It follows Bernstein's personal and professional trials and successes, beginning at the age of 25 as conductor for the New York Philharmonic.

Of the project, Gyllenhaal said, "As a man, Bernstein was a fascinating figure-full of genius and contradiction-and it will be an incredible honor to tell his story with a talent and friend like Cary."

Read the full story at Deadline.

Jake Gyllenhaal made his Broadway debut in 2015's CONSTELLATIONS, the acclaimed new play by Nick Payne, directed by Michael Longhurst and co-starring Ruth Wilson. The limited engagement played at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. He was last seen on Broadway in the revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Sunday in the Park with George. He has been nominated for Tony and Academy Awards for his work on stage and screen.

Bernstein became Music Director of the New York Philharmonic in 1958. From then until 1969 he led more concerts with the orchestra than any previous conductor. He subsequently held the lifetime title of Laureate Conductor, making frequent guest appearances with the orchestra. More than half of Bernstein's 400-plus recordings were made with the New York Philharmonic.

Bernstein contributed substantially to the Broadway musical stage. He collaborated with Betty Comden and Adolph Green on "On The Town" (1944) and "Wonderful Town" (1953). In collaboration with Richard Wilbur and Lillian Hellman and others he wrote "Candide" (1956). Other versions of "Candide" were written in association with Hugh Wheeler, Stephen Sondheim et al. In 1957 he again collaborated with Jerome Robbins, Stephen Sondheim, and Arthur Laurents, on the landmark musical "West Side Story," also made into the Academy Award-winning film. In 1976 Bernstein and Alan Jay Lerner wrote "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."