Waypoint Entertainment and Linson Entertainment announced today that Oscar winner Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club) will star in Martin Zandvliet’s (Land of Mine) action-thriller The Outsider. Waypoint Entertainment will finance with Ken Kao (The Nice Guys, Knight of Cups) producing alongside John Linson (Sons of Anarchy) and Art Linson (Heat, Fight Club) under their Linson Entertainment banner. BLOOM will handle international sales.
With a screenplay penned by Andrew Baldwin (Bastille Day), principal photography is currently set to begin this fall. Set in post-WWII Japan, The Outsider tells the story of an imprisoned American soldier (Leto) who is released with the help of his Yakuza cellmate. Now free, he sets out to earn their respect and repay his debt while navigating the dangerous criminal underworld.
The Outsider will mark Zandvliet’s English-language debut following the success of Land of Mine, which was lauded at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival and acquired by Sony Pictures as a potential awards film this year. For Leto, this will be just the second film for the selective and transformative actor since his Oscar winning turn in 2013’s Dallas Buyers Club. He will next be seen as The Joker in Suicide Squad, which Warner Bros. will release on August 5.
