Taylor Kitsch to Star in Survival Thriller 'Eleven Days'

Taylor Kitsch, known for his roles in "Friday Night Lights" and "Lone Survivor," has been cast as the lead character in the upcoming independent thriller, "Eleven Days." The plot is centered around the brutal summer of 1974 in Texas, where the character Jim Estelle, played by Kitsch, the head of the Texas Department of Corrections, engages in a life-threatening cat-and-mouse game with a convicted heroin trafficker. The trafficker becomes a threat after his planned escape takes an unexpected turn, resulting in a hostage crisis within a local penitentiary. The tension escalates as the line between captor and captive, and justice and survival, begins to blur over the course of an agonizing eleven days.

Filming for the movie is expected to begin in Texas this September, under the direction of Peter Landesman, known for "Parkland" and "Concussion." The screenplay is penned by Kevin Sheridan, and adapted with alterations by Landesman from the original book by William T. Harper titled, "Eleven Days In Hell: The 1974 Carrasco Prison Siege at Huntsville, Texas." Vincent Newman and Vance Howard are set to be the film's producers.

Aside from "Eleven Days," Kitsch will also be appearing in the upcoming series "Dark Wolf," a prequel to "The Terminal List." Following his initial acclaim from the series "Friday Night Lights," Kitsch has been cast in several remarkable productions such as Disney’s adventure film "John Carter," “X-Men Origins: Wolverine" as Gambit, Universal’s “Battleship” adaptation, and HBO’s drama “The Normal Heart." He was also the lead in two Netflix series, "American Primeval" and "Painkiller." Kitsch is currently represented by Untitled Entertainment, WME, and ID.