Filmmaker Ridley Scott has confirmed he’s trying to get Adolescence star Owen Cooper to play Jim Hawkins in his upcoming film adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island at Sony Pictures.

The decorated filmmaker spoke with Collider about the upcoming film, set to begin shooting on November 1st. He confirmed Hugh Jackman’s involvement, adding, “I hope Hugh Grant, and I hope the kid from Adolescence.”

The 18th-century coming-of-age story follows young Jim Hawkins who finds a map to Captain Flint’s long-lost fortune and embarks on a perilous voyage aboard the Hispaniola. Faced with mutiny led by the cunning, one-legged cook Long John Silver, played by Jackman, Hawkins’s crew ultimately outsmart the pirates to claim the gold.

Jack Thorne, Emmy-winning writer of Adolescence, is penning the script. Jackman is currently the only confirmed member of the cast, but Scott has said the casting process is underway. Jackman’s recent acting credits include the titular role in  Michael Sarnoski’s The Death of Robin Hood, alongside Jodie Comer, Bill Skarsgård, Murray Bartlett, and Noah Jupe, as well as Kyle Balda’s The Sheep Detectives.

There is also ongoing speculation about whether the actor will return as Logan/Wolverine in Marvel’s highly anticipated Avengers: Doomsday.

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As for Cooper, he garnered international acclaim for his role as Jamie Miller in Netflix’s Adolescence. He won numerous awards including a Primetime Emmy Award, BAFTA, and a Golden Globe. He made history as the youngest male actor to win an Actor Award and a Primetime Emmy, aged 15. The show also started a political wave of dialogue around young boys in Britain being indoctrinated into extreme right-wing content and the Manosphere, with Adolescence’s subject matter being dissected on countless news channels and used as curriculum in British schools aimed to steer male students from harmful, sexist online rhetoric.

Meanwhile, Scott is currently promoting ‘The Dog Stars’, which held its world premiere in London last night. Jacob Elordi and Margaret Qualley star in the adaptation of Peter Heller’s book of the same title.

You can catch The Dog Stars in cinemas worldwide on August 28th.

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