Summary

• Gyllenhaal’s fresh interpretation in ‘Road House’ led to critical acclaim, surpassing the original.
• Working with acclaimed directors like Michael Bay and Guy Ritchie has been rewarding for Gyllenhaal.
• Gyllenhaal’s upcoming Guy Ritchie project is anticipated to be the most exciting among his upcoming movies.

After an excellent performance in the popular new Road House remake, Jake Gyllenhaal has an exciting batch of upcoming movies and shows to look forward to. In Road House, Gyllenhaal managed to achieve something many movie stars have failed at: successfully reprising a beloved character in a reboot. The late great Patrick Swayze played Dalton in the 1989 classic, yet Gyllenhaal’s fresh interpretation was one of the reasons for the Road House remake’s astounding critical acclaim, which even surpassed the original. With the movie’s widespread success, Gyllenhaal could be at the start of a movie hot streak.

Leading up to Road House, the actor’s movies have been mixed, barely scratching the surface of Jake Gyllenhaal’s best movies. In 2019, he made his superhero movie debut, playing the villain Mysterio in Spider-Man: Far From Home. He’s returned to family-friendly movies twice since, with the poorly received animated films Spirit Untamed and Strange World, which received 5.5 and 5.7 scores on IMDb, respectively. However, his live-action roles have found more success.

Road House is currently streaming on Prime Video.

Working with acclaimed directors is the most surefire method of success in Hollywood, though not every actor has the opportunities Gyllenhaal has in role selection. The 43-year-old actor has worked on projects with successful action directors Michael Bay, Guy Ritchie, and Doug Liman in the past few years. Gyllenhaal and Michael Bay teamed up for Ambulance, a crime thriller in which he plays a fun antagonist. In Guy Ritchie’s the Covenant, Gyllenhaal plays an American soldier in the action war/thriller. Neither project was a commercial hit, though they’ve fulfilled purposes for their expected audiences and received acclaim.

6 Presumed Innocent

A Legal Thriller Miniseries Set To Release In 2024

After Road House, Jake Gyllenhaal still has another project to be released in 2024: Presumed Innocent. This show is actually a significant milestone for Gyllenhaal, as it’s his first proper television show role. Many movie stars have pivoted to starring in more TV shows over the past decade as the rise of streaming platform shows has changed the medium, allowing for less time-consuming schedules and more engaging material. Presumed Innocent should be precisely that for Gyllenhaal, a miniseries for him to demonstrate his acting chops.

Presumed Innocent will be a legal thriller TV series based on Scott Turrow’s acclaimed 1987 novel, which was previously adapted into a 1990 film starring Harrison Ford, a critically acclaimed commercial success. The legal genre is typically performance-heavy, and Gyllenhaal’s role as the lead character, a lawyer named Rusty Sabich, shouldallow him to demonstrate his abilities with monologues and intense dramatic scenes. He’s joined in the cast by talented actors like Ruth Negga, Peter Sarsgaard, and Bill Camp.

If any creative lead guarantees an exciting script, it’s David E. Kelley.

The two most assuring aspects of Presumed Innocent that make it an exciting Gyllenhaal project are its distribution on Apple TV+ and the fact that David E. Kelley is penning the series. Apple TV+ has become home to some of streaming’s most promising high-budget shows, with exciting television planned throughout 2024. As for David E. Kelley, the veteran TV writer/producer is responsible for some of the best lawyer shows and legal dramas ever, though he’s recently been acclaimed for prestige dramas like Big Little Lies. If any creative lead guarantees an exciting script, it’s David E. Kelley.

5 Untitled Guy Richie Project

Jake Gyllenhaal Re-Teams With Guy Ritchie For Another Project

The Covenant may not have received the notoriety of the director’s other works, but it’s one of Guy Ritchie’s best movies, making it all the more exciting that he and Gyllenhaal are collaborating on another film. Guy Ritchie has defined a particular style of action and crime movies, with British humor and distinctive characters generally defining his casts. The Covenant was far from being quintessentially Guy Ritchie, but the next film might come closer.

Though the upcoming Guy Ritchie movie is untitled, there’s a decent amount of information to speculate on. First, Gyllenhaal is joined by another Guy Ritchie veteran, Henry Cavill. Cavill starred in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in 2015 and will also appear in Ritchie’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which is set to release in April 2024. Eiza González, who co-starred with Gyllenhaal in Ambulance, is set to be the movie’s lead.

As for Gyllenhaal’s upcoming movies, the Guy Ritchie project is the most exciting.

The movie will follow two extraction specialists, presumably Gyllenhaal and Cavill, who coordinate an escape route for a negotiator, González. After shooting took place in late 2023, the film is currently planned for a January 2025 release. Ritchie’s recent movies have been hit or miss, but the promising cast and premise could make the upcoming film a commercial and critical hit. As for Gyllenhaal’s upcoming movies, the Guy Ritchie project is the most exciting.

4 The Anarchists vs ISIS

Jake Gyllenhaal Will Star In The Morbius Director’s Next Action Drama

Jake Gyllenhaal’s other projects are all in early development, with varying amounts of information available about them. First up is The Anarchists vs ISIS, which is described as an action drama about “A group of American activists join forces with a Kurdish militia group to help defeat ISIS in Syria.” Aside from Guy Ritchie’s the Covenant, Gyllenhaal has also starred in the modern war movie Jarhead, so he’s no stranger to the genre.

The creative team behind the film is fascinating, but it could lead to a divisive result. The Anarchists vs ISIS is being directed by Daniel Espinosa, the filmmaker who worked with Gyllenhaal on 2017’s Life. However, the director is best known for his work on the critical disaster Morbius. Given his previous filmography of action movies, most of which have received mixed reviews, Espinosa’s attachment to the project suggests that the film will lean heavily toward the action thriller side.

The movie is being written by Seth Harp, who has no documented experience with film scripts before this project. However, Harp is a journalist who previously wrote a piece for RollingStone in 2017, covering the film’s subject material. His journalistic work will likely be a guiding force for the movie and could be one of its more promising aspects despite his lack of experience. The Anarchists vs ISIS has several risky components and will surely be an interesting project for Gyllenhaal to see come to fruition.

3 The Division

Another early development project for Gyllenhaal is The Division, which will see him venture into a dystopian sci-fi thriller. The movie’s premise is set in the near future, where a virus spreads through paper money, devastating New York City with a harsh pandemic. Jake Gyllenhaal will play a member of a team sent into the city to investigate the disaster and “save who and what remains.” The film should continue Gyllenhaal’s action movie trend, as it’s being directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber, who previously worked on Red Notice, Central Intelligence, and Skyscraper, all with The Rock.

The Division has been written by Rafe Judkins, whose screen credits include Prime Video’s The Wheel of Time TV series and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Gyllenhaal will also star alongside Jessica Chastain, whose films have had a mixed reception since she won the Academy Award in 2022 for The Eyes of Tammy Faye. The Division seems like it could fulfill an action movie niche, but the components aren’t promising for it to be a critically acclaimed hit.

2 Snow Blind

Jake Gyllenhaal Will Collaborate With The Guilty’s Creator, Gustav Möller, On Another Thriller

Snow Blind is another Jake Gyllenhaal project that’s still in early development. He’ll collaborate with director Gustav Möller, with whom he partially worked on The Guilty. The Swedish director has had an interesting career in Hollywood filmmaking. He wrote and directed the 2018 Danish version of The Guilty, which was then adapted into an American version for Netflix, in which Gyllenhaal starred in 2021. While Hollywood adaptations of international films don’t always bode well, Möller must’ve taken to Gyllenhaal’s performance, as it’s led to a shared project between them.

Snow Blind is a thriller, with its plot described as “Follows a high-school teenager who discovers that his family has secretly been in the Witness Protection Program for years and that someone is now tracking them down.” Aside from the lead star and filmmaker, there’s not much information available yet on Snow Blind. It’s being written by Tyler Jenkins and Ollie Masters, neither of whom have any notable screenplay credits, and Patrick Ness, who’s credited for A Monster Calls and Chaos Walking. None of Möller’s films have been astounding so far, making Gyllenhaal the most promising name attached.

1 Lake Success

Lake Success In An HBO Series Jake Gyllenhaal Has Been Attached To Since 2019

Long before Gyllenhaal was attached to Presumed Innocent, he signed on to what would’ve been his first TV series back in 2019. Lake Success has been in development for five years, initially reported by Deadline. At this point, it’s possible the show won’t move forward or that it’ll shift directions and move forward without Gyllenhaal. However, it’s still on his IMDb, so it’s worth at least breaking down what sounds like a promising series.

Lake Success is intended to be a miniseries for HBO, which alone should signal something promising. Jake Gyllenhaal’s sister, Maggie Gyllenhaal, previously found success for years on the HBO series The Deuce, and the network’s reputation for astounding television speaks for itself. The show would be based on a 2018 novel by Gary Shteyngart, who was also planned to co-produce and write the series alongside Tom Spezialy, who’s been credited with writing on Watchmen and The Leftovers, among various other projects.

In Lake Success, Gyllenhaal would play Barry Cohen, a man who flees his family to seek out his college girlfriend, leaving his wife to raise their son and develop her own new romantic connection. With Gyllenhaal starring, the series seems like it could offer the next in HBO’s long line of complex, morally ambiguous characters. If it comes to fruition, the miniseries could be one of Jake Gyllenhaal’s most exciting upcoming projects.