With the recent news surrounding what happened to Jamal Khashoggi, it’s clear that there is no shortage of tragic journalism stories, sadly. And in the last five years, there’s perhaps not a more well-known story of a fallen journalist than James Foley. Now, it appears that Foley’s story, as well as others’ stories, will be told in the upcoming film “Daniel,” and we know who will play the murdered US reporter.
Screen Daily is reporting that actor Toby Kebbell has joined the cast of “Daniel” to play the Foley. As you might have gathered from the title, the film isn’t a James Foley biopic. No, “Daniel” follows the story of Danish photographer Daniel Rye, who was captured by ISIS while working in Syria in 2013. During his more than a year in captivity, Rye was surrounded by 23 other foreign nationals, including the aforementioned Foley.
Kebbell is probably best known for his work on films “RocknRolla,” “War Horse,” and “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.” “Daniel” is directed by Niels Arden Oplev, who is probably best known as the director of the 2009 Swedish version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” In addition to ‘Dragon Tattoo,’ Oplev helmed the pilot episode of “Mr. Robot,” and most recently, the 2017 remake “Flatliners.”
“Our fabulous UK casting director Jessie Frost brought up Toby Kebbell as James Foley. We were immediately drawn to him because of his obvious talent and his impressive body of work,” said Oplev. “On top of that, Toby resembles James in look and age, and he has great passion for interpreting an iconic American character like James on the big screen. We are very excited about the material that we already have shot with Toby, and we are looking forward to continue the work with him in Jordan.”
Joining Kebbell in the cast of “Daniel” are Esben Smed as the titular character and Anders W. Berthelsen as the hostage negotiator.
Filming is already underway on “Daniel,” with the film expecting to have a Danish release sometime in September 2019. A global release has not been set yet, as the producers are looking for international distributors.