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26th March 2024
12:58pm GMT
Fresh off of his Oscar win earlier this month for Oppenheimer, Irish actor Cillian Murphy is reportedly to star in another major Hollywood historical thriller movie.
According to Deadline, Universal Pictures - who released Oppenheimer - are set to make a film adaptation of Mark A. Bradley's 2020 non-fiction book Blood Runs Coal – The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America.
The synopsis for the true crime book reads:
"In the early hours of New Year’s Eve 1969, in the small soft coal mining borough of Clarksville, Pennsylvania, longtime trade union insider Joseph 'Jock' Yablonski and his wife and daughter were brutally murdered in their old stone farmhouse.
"Behind the assassination was the corrupt president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), Tony Boyle, who had long embezzled UMWA funds, silenced intra-union dissent, and served the interests of Big Coal companies—and would do anything to maintain power.
"The most infamous crimes in the history of American labor unions, the Yablonski murders catalysed the first successful rank-and-file takeover of a major labor union in modern US history."
Deadline states that the book will be made into a starring and producing vehicle for Murphy, with the Cork native to play Jock Yablonski's labor attorney son Chip - who made it his life mission to seek justice for his murdered family members.
This is as Jez and John-Henry Butterworth (Edge of Tomorrow, Ford v Ferrari) will pen the screenplay.
Blood Runs Coal is set to be one of several upcoming projects for Murphy.
The actor stars in the already acclaimed Irish drama movie Small Things Like These, which is set for a release in the next few months.
On top of this, he is set to lead the cast of the Netflix dark comedy-drama film Steve, as well as the much-discussed Peaky Blinders movie.
He could also appear in 28 Years Later, the sequel to zombie horror 28 Days Later that is in the works.
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