Ewan McGregor Set to Direct and Star in “American Pastoral”; Jennifer Connelly and Dakota Fanning Co-Stars

American Pastoral will be adapted to the big screen and will star Ewan McGregor, Jennifer Connelly and Dakota Fanning. The film will be based on the Pulitzer-winning novel by Philip Roth. Lakeshore Entertainment will be producing the movie and has tapped actor Ewan McGregor to direct his feature film debut. The film will start shooting by September.

John Romano was called on to write the script. He famously wrote The Lincoln Lawyer which starred Matthew McConaughey. Philip Noyce and Fisher Stevens were once attached to direct the film.

Lakeshore's Tom Rosenberg and Gary Lucchesi are producing a project that Noyce had been with for more than a decade, when he was first set to helm for Connelly, Paul Bettany and Evan Rachel Wood, but is still pending.

The story follows Seymour "Swede" Levov (McGregor), a legendary high school athlete who grows up to marry a former beauty queen (Connelly) and inherits his father's business. Swede's seemingly perfect life shatters when his daughter (Fanning) rebels by becoming a revolutionary and committing a deadly act of political terrorism during the Vietnam War.

McGregor, from Crieff in Perthshire, is best known for his roles in Trainspotting and the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

He told Variety: "I've wanted to direct for years and wanted to wait until I found a story that I 'had' to tell, and in this script I knew I had found that story."

Rosenberg, chief executive of film production company Lakeshore, said: "Ewan's talent goes far beyond his on-screen work, and we're excited to be working with a director who is as passionate as we are about telling the story of American Pastoral."