Tommy Lee Jones will adapt, direct, produce and star in a movie based on Ernest Hemingway’s posthumously published novel “Islands in the Stream,” says The Hollywood Reporter.
Morgan Freeman and John Goodman also are in discussions to co-star.
“Islands” centers on the various life stages of a reclusive male painter named Thomas Hudson before, during and after World War II after he moves to the Bahamas. Like many Hemingway characters, Hudson, who in the tale has a stint working for the U.S. Navy and also endures a series of family tragedies, leads a complicated emotional life that he hides behind a stony exterior.
Jones co-wrote the script with Bill Witliff, who wrote the screenplay for George Clooney’s The Perfect Storm.
The film, budgeted at $30 million, will shoot in Puerto Rico, with production not scheduled to start until next March.
