‘Belly Of The Beast’: Colin Farrell & Ben Stiller To Star In Andrew Haigh’s True-Crime Drama

Colin Farrell is on a bit of a hot streak in the wake of “The Banshees Of Inisherin” with his recent series “Sugar” and his upcoming MAX spinoff gangster series, “The Penguin,” debuting later in the year. The Irish actor is lining up some impressive feature projects alongside those TV roles, including a new drama based on the Jerome Loving novel “Jack & Norman: A State-Raised Convict & The Legacy of Norman Mailer’s ‘The Execution’s Song’” according to a report from Deadline. 

“Belly of The Beast” hails from director Andrew Haigh (“All of Us Strangers”) and will see Farrell play Jack Henry Abbott, the protege of literary giant Norman Mailer, who Ben Stiller will play. In the drama, the two strike up a relationship after Abbott, while incarcerated, convinces Mailer he is a talented writer and worth getting a second chance at life. Yet, only six weeks after being released, Abbott committed an unforgivable act of violence in New York, fled to Mexico, and then was killed himself.

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Here is the logline of the Loving novel Haigh and Alexis Jolly will be adapting into a screenplay via Amazon: 

Norman Mailer was writing “The Executioner’s Song,” his novel about condemned killer Gary Gilmore when he struck up a correspondence with Jack Henry Abbott, Federal Prisoner 87098-132. Over time, Abbott convinced the famous author that he was a talented writer who deserved another chance at freedom. With letters of support from Mailer and other literary elites of the day, Abbott was released on parole in 1981. With Mailer’s help, Abbott quickly became the literary “it boy” of New York City. But in a shocking turn of events, the day before a rave review of Abbott’s book, “In The Belly of the Beast,” appeared in The New York Times, Abbott murdered a New York City waiter and fled to Mexico. Eerily, like Gary Gilmore in Mailer’s true-life novel, Abbott was killed within six weeks of his release from prison.

The pic is heading to the Cannes Film Market, which feels like it’s having a bit of a moment with what feels like a larger volume of high-profile projects heading to the film market than we’re used to, likely due to the strikes in 2023, adding to the pile of unmade films itching to get financed or find distributors.

m2k films, UTA Independent Film Group, CAA Media Finance, and Village Roadshow Pictures are part of the team behind the sales launch as the film goes out to suitors next week.