Los Angeles: Actor Jacob Elordi is set to star in United Artists' 'The Executioner's Song' and will also serve as a producer on the film.
Scott Stuber's United Artists has acquired the rights to adapt Norman Mailer's 1982 novel 'The Executioner's Song', with Elordi set to play convicted murderer Gary Gilmore, according to entertainment news outlet Deadline.
The film is based on Mailer's novel and follows Gilmore, a career criminal who was released on parole in 1976 and subsequently murdered two men – a petrol station attendant and a motel manager – during separate robberies in Utah.
Gilmore became a national media sensation and was the first person executed in the US after a four-year de facto moratorium on capital punishment.
United Artists' Stuber and Nick Nesbitt will produce the film alongside Elordi, his manager Matt Vioral, and producer Sherry Marsh.
Filmmaker Lawrence Schiller, who directed the original 1982 film, will serve as an executive producer.
Elordi recently featured in 'The Dog Stars', alongside actors Margaret Qualley and Josh Brolin, among others. He will next appear in 'Scapegoat', an A24 film directed by Ari Aster and reportedly described as a psychological drama or thriller.
The film also stars Scarlett Johansson, Jude Law, Caleb Landry Jones, Samba Schutte, and Cory Michael Smith.