Jake Gyllenhaal is considering playing an Ivy League murderer in a new true-crime film.
The actor has been reported to be in talks of portraying Thomas Gilbert, Jr., a man accused of murdering his own father, Thomas Gilbert, Sr., who was a Manhattan hedge-fund manager. However, according to a source, it is still unclear whether Gyllenhaal will take on the role as he is still just in talks of doing it.
The new film will be called Gilded Rage. It will be based on a couple of articles from Vanity Fair that documents the events that transpired prior to and during the killing of the 70-year-old father.
Gilbert, 34, was born into such immense privilege. He attended the best preparatory and private schools such as Buckley School and Deerfield Academy. He also graduated from an Ivy League school. He frequently vacationed in the Hamptons with an equally privileged and wealthy circle of friends.
But the man had been showing troubling behavior ever since he was a teenager. Shelley Gilbert, his mother, states that, after a few consultations and some sessions with the finest psychiatrists in the area, her son was eventually diagnosed with a mental illness commonly known as schizophrenia. And as the years progressed, his condition only seemed to worsen.
One day in January 2015, he found himself back at their home in Beekman Place. According to what he told the police, he asked his mother to get him a sandwich, leaving both Gilbert and his father at the house. In that time, Gilbert shot his own father dead.
The motive for his crime is believed to stem from a previous argument with his father. His previous monthly $3,000 allowance was slashed by $200. This was said to have evidently upset the man and drove him to slay his own father.
His murder trial is set to be on Tuesday. His team of lawyers have built up quite a defense, stating that he was not responsible for his murderous intent and actions, playing the card for insanity defense, putting forth records of his diagnosis and consultations with psychiatric clinics in the past.
The defense team is determined to stick with this strategy and exaggerate the condition of his schizophrenia in order to free him and instead, place him in a mental health institution.
Charlie McDowell whose works include directing The One I Love in 2014 and The Discovery in 2017, has hinted to be on board to direct Gilded Rage. The filming is scheduled to happen later in this year in New York.
