Stephan James to Star Opposite Russell Crowe in Paramount's American Son

Paramount continues to assemble a solid cast for its thriller American Son.

In a report from Deadline Hollywood, up-and-coming Canadian actor Stephan James is in negotiations to play the lead opposite Russell Crowe in the studio’s remake of the French film A Prophet. The film will be directed by Andrew “Rapman” Onwubolou (Blue Story) and the screenplay will be written by author Dennis Lehane who certainly can craft a solid thriller having written novels that have been adapted for the screen including Mystic River and Shutter Island.

James will play the lead who builds a multiracial crime syndicate with the hopes of taking down his mentor, a ruthless mobster, and earn his place among the high ranking mafias. Crowe will portray the mobster that controls James.

A Prophet, the film of which American Son is based on, was released in 2009 to critical acclaim and numerous accolades. That movie, directed by Jacques Audiard, centered on an Arab man working his way to become a Mafia kingpin after he is sent to a French prison. It won the Grand Prix at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film so this one has some mighty big shoes to fill if it wants to have the same kind of impact.

James is certainly seeing his stock climb over the last three years. The Toronto born native first caught the attention of the industry in 2016 playing Jesse Owens in the biopic Race. He made his breakthrough two years later in Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk and earned a Golden Globe nod for his role on Homecoming. James will reprise his role for Season 2 of that show.

I personally have mixed feelings in regards to this project. On the one hand, A Prophet is a phenomenal piece of filmmaking and any remake will likely fall short of the vision Audiard created. That being said, with this talent involved and the potential to take the plot of the original and make it timely to the themes of our society with a diverse cast to boot.

Honestly it can go either way but Paramount considers it a high priority and filming could potentially begin either in the fall or beginning of 2021 with a chance to hit theaters for fall and winter of next year putting it right in the heart of awards season. We’ll keep you posted as more details on American Son reveal themselves