Ezra Miller To Star In 'The Mourner' Amidst 'Fantastic Beasts' And 'The Flash' Delays

Ezra Miller is keeping busy. While his two big blockbuster franchises have crawled to a halt, the Fantastic Beasts and Justice League actor is signing on to star in an intriguing indie project based on a Japanese novel Arata Tendo. Miller has signed on to lead The Mourner, an emotional drama film directed by Casper Kiriya (Casshern).

If you thought the delay for Fantastic Beasts 3 would mean that Miller would race back to the long-delayed The Flash solo movie, you may be disappointed to learn that Miller has signed on to star in The Mourner, an independent film helmed by Kiriya and written by Robin Shushan (AMC's Feed the Beast).

Deadline broke the news that Miller had signed on to star in The Mourner, based on the novel Itamu Hito by Arata Tendo, which has previously been adapted as a Japanese-language film in 2015. Per Deadline, this is the synopsis for the film:

The Mourner follows a jaded and embittered homicide detective on the trail of murderous sex traffickers, who discovers new spiritual meaning in her life when she comes across a mystical young man (Miller) whose calling in life is to mourn the dead who have no one else to mourn them. Tendo won the Naoki Prize in 2008 for the novel Itamu Hito (The Mourner).

DC Extended Universe fans eager for another glimpse of Miller's scene-stealing Barry Allen may be disappointed that The Flash continues to move forward at a sluggish pace. The long-delayed film has seen several directors come and go, though Miller remains attached even after the box office disappointment of Justice League. Directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein seem to be working on The Flash solo movie in the meanwhile, though it's not clear whether it will be a universe-rebooting Flashpoint, as previously rumored. That seems unlikely as Warner Bros.' solo DC Comics movies thrive at the box office as they shed connections to the DCEU.

But it's nice to see Miller return to his roots in the indie scene. His breakout performance in Lynne Ramsay's harrowing drama We Need to Talk About Kevin still chills me to my core and was so convincing that it colored my view of him in the movies that followed for years. I'm sure he'll excel in the role of a spiritual man who travels the world mourning the forgotten dead in The Mourner.