Jim Carrey set to star in thriller True Crimes for Miss Violence director

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

A couple of years ago, Christoph Waltz was in talks for the lead role in TRUE CRIMES, a film inspired by David Grann’s 2008 New Yorker article about the murder of advertising company manager Dariusz Janiszewski, but now Screen International has learned that Jim Carrey has been cast as the lead. Carrey will star alongside Agata Kulesza (IDA), Charlotte Gainsbourg (NYMPHOMANIAC), Kati Outinen (LE HAVRE), Zbigniew Zamachowski (WALESA: MAN OF HOPE) and Marton Csokas (THE EQUALIZER) in the thriller.

Although Roman Polanski was previously mentioned as a possibility to direct TRUE CRIMES, Greek filmmaker Alexandros Avranas (MISS VIOLENCE, WITHOUT) has been set to helm the film, which will start production next month in Kravkow, Poland. Avranas will be directing from a script by HOW I LIVE NOW and THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND screenwriter Jeremy Brock.

Synopsis:

Adapted from David Grann’s 2008 New Yorker feature, the story involves the case of Krystian Bala, a Polish writer who was convicted of murder in 2007. The murder for which he was convicted had been a cold case, baffling the Polish police for years, and had been called a perfect crime. Bala, never a suspect in the case, attracted attention when he published a novel that detailed a murder very much like the one that was frustrating the police.

During a conversation with Screen International, Brock said that he's been working on the script since traveling to Poland in 2008.

I spent the intervening time to find my inspiration for what has become an original screenplay. I haven’t worked so long and persistently on one project as I have done on this one. For me, working with a subject in the public domain means doing a great deal of research and gradually working it into my particular version. Once I got to work with Alexandros Arana from the end of last year, the script really took off because he and I have a symbiosis. It is a perfect marriage of my Anglo-Saxon mentality and his more European approach to filmmaking.

Jim Carrey's last decent movie (in my opinion, anyway) was 2010's I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS, but I'm still a big fan of the actor, and I'm curious to see how he'll do in this type of role. Are you interested in checking out TRUE CRIMES?

Carrey most recently has been filming for Ana Lily Amirpour's (A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT) cannibal love story THE BAD BATCH, and is on board to star and executive produce Showtime's planned dark comedy series I'm Dying Up Here.