‘Blood Runs Coal’ Starring Cillian Murphy.

Two nights before Cillian Murphy won the Best Actor Oscar for the Universal Pictures blockbuster “Oppenheimer”, the studio completed a pre-emptive acquisition for the Mark A. Bradley non-fiction book “Blood Runs Coal: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America”. It’s an epic story of a corrupt union leader who murders a rival and is taken down by the lawyer son of the slain coal miner. The movie will be scripted as a starring and producing vehicle for Murphy.

Jez Butterworth (Spectre, Ford v Ferrari) will write the script with John-Henry Butterworth (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny). The same duo who worked on “Edge Of Tomorrow” starring Tom Cruise.

The book follows the 1969 murder of mining union organizer Joseph “Jock” Yablonski, who was killed at home with his wife and daughter by then union president Tony Boyle. When Jock ran against Boyle in the election and made accusations of impropriety, Boyle was so incensed by the audacity of being challenged that he was said to have ordered the murder of his opponent, after three attempts, Jock was killed along with most of his family as they gathered for New Year’s Eve . The killing followed Yablonski’s son Chip, a labor attorney, to make it his life’s mission to get justice for his father.

Murphy will play Chip Yablonski, a role that seems tailor fit for him.

John Davis and Jordan Davis will produce the pic through Davis Entertainment, and Murphy and Alan Moloney will produce through Big Things Films. Jordan Davis found the book, and the pieces came together quickly on a drama that could put Murphy back in an awards race down the line. No director is attached yet.

Murphy has a busy slate ahead of him. He is set to reprise his role as Jim in the new “28 Years Later” movie from Sony, directed by Danny Boyle and written by Alex Garland — the duo who also made the first zombie entry in the franchise.

He is also set to reprise his role as Tommy Shelby in a new “Peaky Blinders” movie from Steven Night and Netflix. The film is set to shoot in September. They just added Barry Keoghan and Rebecca Ferguson in the cast alongside Murphy. A 2025 launch on Netflix is being eyed.

“Blood Runs Coal” might go into production later this year.

sources: Deadline, World of Reel.