Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire are in negotiations to star in an English-language remake of Susanne Bier’s Danish 2004 war film Brothers according to a report in Variety.
Maguire would star as a man sent to Afghanistan by the United Nations, while his younger, black-sheep brother (Maguire) takes care of his brother’s wife and child. David Benioff is drafting the screenplay. Director Jim Sheridan hopes to have the film in front of cameras in November.
In the past there have been attempts to create a rivalry between the two actors. When Maguire hurt his back while working on the horseracing drama Seabiscuit (2003) and his participation in Spider-Man 2 (2004) was in doubt, Gyllenhaal’s name was the ine most mentioned in rumored possible replacements. It should be interesting to see them have a real rivalry, at least on screen.