Ezra Miller Cast in Lead Role of Film Based on Award-Winning Japanese Novel

February 8, 2019

Ezra Miller will be playing the lead role in an independent thriller based on an acclaimed Japanese novel this summer.

Produced by Echo Lake Entertainment, “The Mourner” follows a homicide detective who finds new spiritual meaning after crossing paths with a mystical young man, whose calling in life is to mourn the dead who have no one else to mourn them.

According to Deadline, the thriller is based on Arata Tendo’s novel “Itamu Hito” (“The Mourner”), which won the Naoki Prize in 2008.

The novel, first published in 2006, was adapted into a Japanese-language film in 2015.

“The Mourner” will be written by Robin Shushan (“Feed the Beast”) and directed by Casper Kiriya (“Casshern”), who will also produce with Mike Marcus (“The Ward”).

Paradigm will start selling the project at the European Film Market (EFM) in Berlin.

Shushan pointed out that the movie will be a “very loose” adaptation of Tendo’s work and that Miller will not play a Japanese man.

“It’s an adaptation for an American film that will have a diverse cast. The great Ezra Miller was not cast to play a Japanese man,” Shushan said, according to Forward.

Aside from “The Mourner,” Miller is scheduled to film “Fantastic Beasts 3” and “The Flash” movie.

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