EXCLUSIVE: Tony and Pulitzer Prize winner David Auburn (Proof) has been tapped to write a new draft of Another Round, the English-language remake of Thomas Vinterberg’s Oscar-winning Danish drama from 2020, which has Chris Rock on board to direct.
Rock joined the project in January, as we were first to report. At the time, he had a draft in hand from Stuart Blumberg but was looking for another writer with which to partner. We’re told Auburn landed the job after a long search, beating out maybe 200 scribes in the process.
Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way Productions secured the remake rights to Another Round shortly after the film landed the Best International Feature prize at the Academy Awards. We’re told that the project is picking up steam now that Auburn is involved, though Rock did just sign on to direct and star in Misty Green, a Hollywood drama for which he wrote the script, in November. So how soon we might hear about further developments on Another Round is not yet clear. Introduced to buyers at the American Film Market, Misty Green is just the latest film Rock has eyed to direct, on the heels of a Universal-based adaptation of King: A Life, the Jonathan Eig book about Martin Luther King Jr. Pic was described by our sources as a contemporary tale of Hollywood excess and inequality.
Another Round, meanwhile, watches as four high school teachers consume alcohol on a daily basis to see how it affects their social and professional lives. Vinterberg directed the darkly comedic drama from his script written with Tobias Lindholm, with Mads Mikkelsen in the lead. In addition to the Oscar, the film was recognized with a BAFTA and numerous European Film Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Screenwriter.
Brad Weston will produce the remake for Makeready, alongside DiCaprio for Appian Way. Exec producers include Vinterberg, Sisse Graum Jorgensen, and Kasper Dissing.
Auburn is well known for his play Proof, which won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Play, and was adapted into a 2005 drama, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Hope Davis, by Miramax. Taking on a number of other high-level studio jobs over the last few years, Auburn also wrote The Lake House, the romance starring Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves, for Warner Bros.
Auburn is repped by Verve, manager Rich Freeman of Code Entertainment, and attorney David Matlof of Hirsch Wallerstein Hayum.