Academy Award nominee Jake Gyllenhaal will fight to rescue survivors from an alternate dimension in Oblivion Song, a big screen adaptation of the comic book of the same name by The Walking Dead's Robert Kirkman. The powerhouse actor will also produce the project with Riva Marker via his Nine Stories, along with Kirkman, David Alpert, Bryan Furst and Sean Furst of Skybound Entertainment, and Brian Oliver and Bradley Fischer of New Republic Pictures, who optioned the movie rights to the source material.
Created by writer Robert Kirkman and artist Lorenzo de Felici, Oblivion Song is published by Image Comics and first began back in 2018. The sci-fi story follows Nathan Cole, a man who makes daily trips to try and rescue those still living in the apocalyptic hellscape of Oblivion, a part of Philadelphia lost a decade ago along with 300,000 of its citizens.
"We're thrilled to partner with New Republic and Skybound on Robert Kirkman's mind-blowingly captivating series. When faced with a cataclysmic event that permanently alters our lives, what would we choose to save?" said Marker. "Just as Kirkman did with The Walking Dead and Invincible, in Oblivion Song, he's created the potential for a franchise that is profoundly entertaining, and the perfect opportunity to explore big questions we're reckoning with globally."
Robert Kirkman also discussed the adaptation saying, "We couldn't be more excited to find such great partners in New Republic and Nine Stories. Both companies have a tremendous reputation for premium storytelling at the highest level, and we can't wait to see Jake bring this character to life on the big screen. We are so fortunate to have assembled a team that is as passionate about this comic as we are."
"We are thrilled to partner with Nine Stories and Skybound to help bring Robert and Lorenzo's visionary comic to life," added Oliver and Fischer. "OBLIVION SONG is a rare combination of spectacle, originality, and masterful, multivolume storytelling, which is basically everything we love in the world."
Over the last few years, Jake Gyllenhaal has emerged as one of his generations finest actors, making any project he attaches his name to an instantly enticing one. Thanks to roles in the likes of Nightcrawler, Prisoners, Zodiac, and Brokeback Mountain, Gyllenhaal has proven time and again to be a fearless, magnetic screen presence and Oblivion Song should provide him with ample opportunities, both dramatic and action-packed, to impress once again.
The actor has several projects in the pipeline and can next be seen in Netflix's The Guilty. Directed by Antonie Fuqua, the movie follows a demoted police officer who is assigned to a call dispatch desk and becomes conflicted when he receives an emergency phone call from a kidnapped woman. He will also star in the upcoming action-drama Ambulance for Transformers director Michael Bay as one of a pair of robbers who steal an ambulance after their heist goes awry. Gyllenhaal is also due to portray producer Robert Evans alongside Oscar Isaac as Francis Ford Coppola in Francis and the Godfather, which will chronicle Coppola and Evans' turbulent relationship during the production of gangster classic The Godfather. This comes to us courtesy of Deadline.