Jake Gyllenhaal

Jake Gyllenhaal has been signed on to play legendary conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein in The American. The movie will be directed by Cary Fukunaga, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The project will be based on Humphrey Burton's biography on Bernstein and has been adapted for screenplay by Michael Mitnick. The film will follow the exponential rise of the composer after conducting the New York Philharmonic when he was 25, all the while struggling with fame. His career boasts of penning the score for "On the Waterfront" and the avant-garde musical West Side Story.