"The Master" star joins “Child 44” bestseller adaptation

PanARMENIAN.Net - The strong cast that director Daniel Espinosa assembled for Child 44 just got better. Philip Seymour Hoffman is negotiating to join Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Gary Oldman, and Joel Kinnaman in the film. The picture is being made by Summit Entertainment and co-financed and executive produced by Worldview Entertainment, Deadline said.

An adaptation of the Tom Rob Smith bestseller, the Richard Price-scripted Child 44 focuses on a member of the Soviet military police who investigates a series of nasty child murders during the Stalin-era Soviet Union. His biggest impediment is a government that refuses to acknowledge a serial killer is in their midst. Ridley Scott is producing under his Scott Free Productions banner with Michael Schaefer and Greg Shapiro. Worldview’s Christopher Woodrow, Molly Conners, Maria Cestone, Sarah Johnson Redlich will executive produce along with Douglas Urbanski.

Hoffman is coming off an Oscar nominated turn in The Master, and he’s starring in the sequel The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Summit will distribute Child 44 domestically with Lionsgate handling international sales. Hoffman joins the film mid-swing, as principal photography began June 10th in Prague. Hoffman is repped by attorney Robert Marshall.

Worldview is separately in production on the Alejandro González Iñárritu-directed Birdman, the Kate Barker-Froyland-directed Song One with Anne Hathaway, and the David Gordon Green-directed drama Manglehorn with Al Pacino. It premiered the James Gray-directed The Immigrant at Cannes as well as the Guillaume Canet-directed Blood Ties and the Arnaud Desplechin-directed drama Jimmy P. with Benicio Del Toro.