Jacob Elordi to Play Gary Gilmore in New The Executioner's Song

Jacob Elordi is set to play convicted murderer Gary Gilmore in a new film adaptation of The Executioner's Song, according to Deadline. The project sits with United Artists, the studio led by Scott Stuber, which has acquired the rights to the 1982 film of the same name.

The new picture draws on Norman Mailer's 1979 true-life novel, which won the Pulitzer Prize. The book follows the last stretch of Gilmore's life, from his crimes to his execution. A true-life novel is a book built on real events, reported and then written as a story.

Elordi also takes a producing credit. He is best known to many audiences for playing the creature in Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein, a role that brought him nominations from the Critics Choice Awards, the Golden Globes, the Actor Awards and the Oscars.

Stuber will produce alongside Nick Nesbitt of UA. Elordi's manager, Matt Vioral, and producer Sherry Marsh are also on the team. Lawrence Schiller, who directed the original 1982 film, will serve as executive producer. Schiller spent long periods interviewing Gilmore, his family and other key figures, and those conversations formed the foundation of Mailer's book. That gives the new project a direct line back to the people and records behind the story.

No director, release date or budget has been announced so far. Those are the details that usually follow a rights deal, and they often take months to settle.

Elordi's next film is already in view. He will star opposite Scarlett Johansson in Scapegoat, the thriller from director Ari Aster for the studio A24.

For a general reader, the basic shape is simple. A studio has bought the rights to an old film, a famous actor will play a real-life figure in a new version, and the people who first told the story are involved again. Each of those steps is a decision, and each one can take a long time to become a finished film.