Cillian Murphy to get justice for his murdered father in Blood Runs Coal adaptation

Cillian Murphy’s first project after winning the Oscar might be putting on Tommy Shelby’s flat cap again for a Peaky Blinders movie, but he apparently still has his sights aimed a little higher for this post-Oscar era. According to Deadline, Murphy is set to star in an adaptation of Mark A. Bradley’s Blood Runs Coal: The Yablonski Murders And The Battle For The United Mine Workers Of America for Universal.

As Deadline notes, the project is right in Murphy’s wheelhouse, with the book telling the story of coal miners in 1960s Pennsylvania and the attempt to depose their corrupt union president—a man named Tony Boyle, who would line his pockets with union funds, would shrug off dangerous incidents while riding in the mining company’s private helicopter, and was just a general piece of shit. When miner Jock Yablonski decided to challenge him in a union election, Boyle rigged the vote and decided to have Yablonski murdered.

Hitmen raided the Yablonski home and killed him, his wife, and his daughter, but Jock’s sons, Chip and Kenneth Yablonski, weren’t home. Also, they were labor lawyers (one of them still is!), and they helped bring Tony Boyle to justice and helped institute reforms in the mine workers union. Murphy will reportedly play one of the sons, assuming the movie gets made, which seems likely given the recent success of a big Hollywood movies based on non-fiction books and also the fact that, you know, Cillian Murphy just won an Oscar.

If this all sounds familiar, you’re either knowledgeable about the history of labor unions (hell yeah, unions rock!) or you’ve seen the 1986 HBO movie Act Of Vengeance, which was based on the same story and starred Charles Bronson as Jock Yablonski and Wilford Brimley as Tony Boyle. A young Keanu Reeves was also in it!