Daniel Espinosa will direct film based on the real-life story about a band of American radicals who are taking on the Islamic State in Syria

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Jake Gyllenhaal is to star in a drama about an American who joins the fight against Islamic State in Syria.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the film, an adaptation of Seth Harp’s Rolling Stone article The Anarchists vs the Islamic State, will see the actor reunite with director Daniel Espinosa, with whom he recently worked on sci-fi horror movie Life. Gyllenhaal will produce the film via his production company Nine Stories.

Jake Gyllenhaal: ‘I would love to not talk about my personal life’ Read more

Published last month, the Rolling Stone article tells the real-life story of a group of US radicals, volunteers and outcasts who have teamed up with Kurdish militia the People’s Protection Units to fight Isis in Syria, with the ultimate aim of establishing an anarchist collective in the region.

Life is released this week and stars Gyllenhaal as an astronaut battling a parasitic organism aboard a spaceship. Ryan Reynolds also stars. The film has received mixed reviews, with the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw calling it a “a serviceable, watchable, determinedly unoriginal film”.

Promoting the film in an interview with the Guardian last week, Gyllenhaal expressed annoyance over questions relating to a past relationship with Taylor Swift. “There are some things I keep to myself, that are my business ... I would love to not talk about my personal life,” he said.