Jake Gyllenhaal to Produce and Star in Film Adaptation of FUN HOUSE Based on Graphic Novel
Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler, Spider-Man: Far From Home) is taking on an adaptation of the graphic novel Fun House, which he is set to produce and star in. The comic was written by Alison Bechdel and follows the author’s complicated relationship with her father, who Gyllenhaal would reportedly play. The story was adapted in 2013 as a stage musical, and will now take to the big screen.
The news comes from The Daily Mail writer, Baz Bamigboye, in the tweet seen below:
Here’s the story’s synopsis:
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic is a graphic memoir by Alison Bechdel tracing her journey from young girl to young adult as she comes to grips with her own lesbian sexuality, her father Bruce’s (most likely) suicide, and his secret homosexuality or bisexuality that he kept hidden throughout his life while having affairs with underage boys.
The memoir starts with Alison as a young girl, playing with her father, who she compares to both Daedalus, the genius inventor of Greek myth, and Icarus, Daedulus’s son who flew too close to the sun on wings designed by his father and plummeted to his death. Alison details Bruce’s obsession with restoring the family’s old Gothic Revival house, which Alison believes was largely motivated by his desire to keep up the appearance of being a good Christian family man even as he was also secretly sleeping with some of his male teenage students. Alison then reveals that Bruce killed himself while she was in college, and though he lived through most of her childhood, she and the rest of the family felt his absence long before he was physically gone.
This sounds heavy and sad, but interesting, and like it could be a great project for Gyllenhaal to be a part of. Are you a fan of the graphic novel, or the musical? Are you excited for a screen adaptation?