First-time screenwriter Brad Ingelsby has never set foot in Hollywood but he’s become a player almost overnight.
The 27-year-old insurance salesman from Pennsylvania has sold his script The Low Dweller to Relativity Media after a heated bidding war and will see it brought to the big screen starring Leonardo DiCaprio, with Ridley Scott possibly directing.
The dark thriller has shades of David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence and the Coen brothers’ Oscar-winning No Country for Old Men, says The Hollywood Reporter.
The movie is set in Indiana in the mid-1980s and centers on a man trying to assimilate into society after he’s released from jail, only to find someone from his past pursuing him to settle a score. In addition to the pursuer, a third male character and a female love interest are said to figure prominently in the script.
According to Variety, Ingelsby spent two years studying screenwriting at the American Film Institute before returning home to write on the side. He learned his good fortune when his agents called his parents house.
The timing of the film is uncertain, but sources told Variety that buyers sparked not only to its No Country-like plotline, but also because the film is a down and dirty project that can be knocked out in a 35-day shoot.
Scott and DiCaprio, who just worked together on Body of Lies, have other big projects lined up, but they could slot this in and get it done quickly.
