The star of The Social Network, Jesse Eisneberg, is set to go through a major identity crisis on screen, along with the lead character of a creepy drama The Double by the leading light of Russian literature, Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Based on the short story from the author of Crime and Punishment, The Double revolves around a man whose life turns into a nightmare after he discovers a literal facsimile of himself waiting for him at the office one day.
Yakov Golyadkin’s double is there to destroy his whole world, not to mention his name and identity, jeopardizing his social position in the realms of Russian bureaucracy.
The short story is scary and realistic to the point where it is hard to read with savage schizophrenic descriptions of mental decay and stream of consciousness thorny passages.
Konstantin Stanislavsky’s famous student Mikhail Chekhov warned actors against getting too close to their characters, when authenticity leads to madness.
The 27-year-old Eisneberg will be choreographed on set by up-and-coming British director Richard Ayoade, whose debut feature Submarine received accolades from critics and film buffs.
The director described Dostoevsky’s masterpiece as “a sort of doppelganger tale, and funny” He told the Guardian that “Dostoevsky never finished The Double to his satisfaction. We’re going to dust that off. We’ll do what Fyodor couldn’t,” Ayoade promised.
It is not the first screen adaptation of The Double. Back in 1968, the guru of Italian cinema, Bernardo Bertolucci, unveiled his version of Dostoevsky’s drama, entitled Partner.