Gyllenhaal to star in Wignall adaptation

Hollywood actor Jake Gyllenhaal is to produce and star in the film adaptation of To Die in Vienna, set to be published in June by Amazon Publishing imprint Thomas & Mercer.

Focus Features has acquired screen rights to To Die in Vienna, the upcoming novel from Kevin Wignall.

Gyllenhaal plans to produce and star in the film, which will be re-titled Welcome to Vienna, through his production company, Nine Stories.

The proposed tone of the film has been compared to classic "paranoid thrillers" such as 1974 American mystery thriller film "The Conversation". Gyllenhaal will play Freddie Makin, a man who is hired to place Jiang Cheng, a Chinese academic, under constant surveillance. When Freddie returns home early one day, he interrupts a break-in at his apartment. The intruder escapes but then comes back to get his revenge. Freddie is a hunted man.When Jiang Cheng mysteriously disappears, Freddie realises the CIA may be involved. His only hope is that nobody discovers the past he has been hiding for so long.

Gyllenhaal’s production company, Nine Stories, most recently produced "Stronger" and the Paul Dano-directed "Wildlife" which premiered at Sundance and stars Gyllenhaal and Carey Mulligan.

Wignall is the author of nine novels. To Die in Vienna is due for publication in June by Amazon Publishing’s crime and thriller imprint, Thomas & Mercer. It will be priced £4.99 in paperback and as an e-book at £3.99.