Brendan Fraser has secured his next role – the lead in Darren Aronofsky’s upcoming movie, The Whale, about an overweight recluse with an eating disorder.
Based on Samuel D. Hunter’s play of the same name, The Whale follows Charlie (played by Fraser), a 600-pound middle-aged man and his attempts to reconnect with his 17-year-old daughter. The two became estranged after Charlie left his family for his male lover, who later died – grief then caused Charlie to turn to compulsive eating.
The play was critically acclaimed when it debuted off-Broadway in 2012, winning both the Drama Desk Award and the Lucille Lortel Award for outstanding play.
Fraser rose to fame as the star of Hollywood blockbusters like 1999’s The Mummy and 1997’s George of the Jungle, but it’s been a while since he had a leading role on the big screen. Nowadays, his work is mostly for TV – he recently starred in the FX series Trust, about the abduction of John Paul Getty III in 1973.
Meanwhile, Aronofsky is known for his psychological movies like Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan. The Whale will be his first time in the director’s chair since 2017’s Mother!, which received mixed reviews. Indie darling A24 (the company behind movies like Midsommar, Uncut Gems, and Moonlight) has global rights to the film and the director’s production company, Protozoa Pictures, will also produce the movie.
There’s no word on a release date for The Whale yet, but in the meantime you can check out our list of the best Netflix movies to stream right now.
