Jake Gyllenhaal is set to pull double duty as the two leads in the thriller An Enemy. Variety reports that Gyllenhaal is in negotiations to star as “a dysfunctional history teacher who accidentally discovers his exact double on a rented DVD, seeks him out and ends up turning both of their lives upside down.” Denis Villeneuve, who was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for his pic Incendies, is onboard to direct. The film is based on the novel The Double by Jose Saramago, and Javier Gullion is set to write the script.

Gyllenhaal most recently wrapped the gritty cop drama End of Watch, and considered taking the lead in Motor City before bowing out. Villeneuve recently committed to directing Hugh Jackman in the vigilante thriller Prisoners, but production on that film won’t begin until next January due to Jackman’s busy schedule. Villeneuve is expected to shoot An Enemy this year. Hit the jump to read the synopsis for The Double.

Here’s the synopsis for Saramago’s The Double:

Tertuliano Máximo Afonso is a divorced, depressed history teacher. To lift his spirits, a colleague suggests he rent a certain video. Tertuliano watches the film, unimpressed. But during the night, when he is awakened by noises in his apartment, he goes into the living room to find that the VCR is replaying the video. He watches in astonishment as a man who looks exactly like him-or, more specifically, exactly like he did five years before, mustachioed and fuller in the face-appears on the screen. He sleeps badly.

Against his better judgment, Tertuliano decides to pursue his double. As he roots out the man's identity, what begins as a whimsical story becomes a "wonderfully twisted meditation on identity and individuality" (The Boston Globe). Saramago displays his remarkable talent in this haunting tale of appearance versus reality. [Amazon]