Illustrious Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier is quietly prepping his next feature, The House That Jack Built. It’s an ambitious crime saga that spans generations, apparently, and Deadline brings word today that Trier has zeroed in on his leading man to play Jack the Ripper – The Outsiders star Matt Dillon.
He’ll take point as the infamous serial killer, while Bruno Ganz (Downfall, Wings of Desire) has climbed aboard to play the “mysterious figure named Verge, who engages Jack in a recurring conversation about his actions and thoughts.” Perhaps most exciting of all is that this two-fold coup is only the tip of the iceberg, with four major female roles to be announced for The House That Jack Built very soon indeed.
On the casting of Dillon and Ganz, von Trier said:
“It’s with great pleasure that we have succeeded in being able to present Matt Dillon and Bruno Ganz as the lead actors in The House That Jack Built. The two gentlemen have each figured as milestones in my cinematic development. Besides being an epochal match, they are excellent actors and fit quite organically into “my cinematic family.” I look forward with pleasure and pride to working with them both.”
Chronicling different eras of Jack’s life, Deadline reveals that von Trier’s thriller has been structured around five murders and the stories that unfold in between. It certainly lays the foundations for a dark, disturbing story, and it’s difficult to imagine another director other than Lars von Trier orchestrating that complex mystery from behind the lens.
Production on The House That Jack Built will set up shop across Sweden and Denmark in the coming months ahead of a planned premiere in 2018.
