Jake Gyllenhaal To Play A Man And His Shadowy Double In 'An Enemy'

Looks like that film Prisoners we talked about the other day, starring Hugh Jackman with Denis Villeneuve directing, is going to have to keep waiting to be made. Villeneuve has signed to make an indie called An Enemy, based on the novel The Double by Jose Saramago.

The film follows a history teacher who discovers that he has a double out in the world, and tries to find the other man. As one might expect, there are some repercussions for that. Now Jake Gyllenhaal has been cast in both of the lead roles.

Variety says Javier Gullón is scripting An Enemy based on the novel, and that the film is likely to shoot before Prisoners, thanks in part to Hugh Jackman's schedule. (He's doing Les Miserables now, and theoretically has The Wolverine after that.)

Here's the recap of the novel:

Tertuliano Máximo Afonso is a divorced, depressed history teacher. To lift his spirits, a colleague suggests he rent a certain video. Tertuliano watches the film, unimpressed. But during the night, when he is awakened by noises in his apartment, he goes into the living room to find that the VCR is replaying the video. He watches in astonishment as a man who looks exactly like him-or, more specifically, exactly like he did five years before, mustachioed and fuller in the face-appears on the screen. He sleeps badly. Against his better judgment, Tertuliano decides to pursue his double. As he roots out the man's identity, what begins as a whimsical story becomes a "wonderfully twisted meditation on identity and individuality" (The Boston Globe). Saramago displays his remarkable talent in this haunting tale of appearance versus reality.