Gyllenhaal and Jones Team Up for 'Source Code'

By our guest blogger, Rob Stammitti.

Duncan Jones, director of this year's film festival darling "Moon," starring Sam Rockwell, is set to direct science-fiction thriller "Source Code," a script originally by Ben Ripley, with the newest revision featuring rewrites from writer/director Billy Ray (Shattered Glass). Jake Gyllenhaal is in negotiations to star.

Newsinfilm.com describes the intriguing plot:

"Gyllenhaal will play a soldier who wakes up in another man’s body and must relive a train explosion over again until he’s able to solve the mystery behind it.  It’s Groundhog Day meets 12 Monkeys, plus a little Matrix."

This will be Gyllenhaal's first return to the science-fiction genre since 2001's Donnie Darko, the cult hit that arguably launched him into the mainstream, and like that film, Source Code sounds like a real mind-bender. Any comparison to 12 Monkeys is definitely a good sign to me.

Jones, whose "Moon" I managed to catch at the Edinburgh Film Festival in June, was a real masterful piece of work as well; Incredibly cerebral and mysterious while managing to maintain a rather heartfelt and emotional premise, and Rockwell's stellar performance (which Jones is currently campaigning an Oscar-nod for) certainly suggests the starting filmmaker really knows how to direct actors.

Early word on the script is very good, and this team-up is pretty exciting. Plus, it's always good to see some sci-fi get made that isn't a Transformers or disaster movie.