Yorgos Lanthimos Sets ‘AND’ As New Film At Searchlight Pictures; Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe And Margaret Qualley To Star
Justin Kroll - September 29, 2022
EXCLUSIVE: The Favourite director Yorgos Lanthimos and Searchlight Pictures are looking to stay in business with each other as the studio is greenlighting his next film AND. Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley are set to star. With a script developed by Element Pictures and Film4 and penned by Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou, the film is produced by Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe of Element, along with Kasia Malipan and Lanthimos.
Ollie Madden and Daniel Battsek are executive producing for Film4, which co-financed the project. It begins principal photography in New Orleans next month.
Plot details are being kept under wraps.
“Working with Yorgos continues to be a highlight for us at Searchlight, and this is yet another truly original project that sets his work apart,” said Searchlight presidents David Greenbaum and Matthew Greenfield. “Working again with Emma, Willem, Jesse and Margaret as well as Element and Film4 is just the icing on the cake.”
The film marks another reunion for the filmmaker with Element Pictures, Searchlight and Film4 following their collaboration on the Oscar-winning The Favourite and Poor Things, currently in post-production.
AND is overseen by VP Production Richard Ruiz and Director Development & Production Peter Spencer, reporting to heads of production and development Katie Goodson-Thomas and DanTram Nguyen. Film4 director Ollie Madden, head of development Ben Coren, and production & development executive Alice Whittemore will oversee the project for Film4.
“This is our fifth film with Yorgos and we are delighted to reunite once again with Searchlight and Film4 on this brilliant script by Yorgos and Efthmis,” Guiney and Lowe said. “Yorgos has drawn an incredible cast and crew and we are dying to get started.”
Lanthimos’ track record over the last decade has been nothing short of superb with credits that include The Lobster, which was nominated for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, both also produced by Element. His feature Dogtooth won the Un Certain Regard prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2011 Oscars.
Stone also reunites following The Favourite, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. For Searchlight, she previously starred in Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ Battle of the Sexes and Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). Stone won the Best Actress Oscar for her role in Damien Chazelle’s La La Land. She is also staring in Lanthimos’ upcoming Poor Things, and will next be seen starring in and producing, through her Fruit Tree banner, The Curse with Showtime and A24.
Dafoe recently starred in Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley as well as Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, both for Searchlight He has been nominated for multiple Oscars including for his roles in At Eternity’s Gate, The Florida Project, Shadow of the Vampire and Platoon. Dafoe’s upcoming projects include Walter Hill’s Dead for a Dollar, Vasilis Katsoupis’ Inside, Lanthimos’ Poor Things and Patricia Arquette’s Gonzo Girl. His recent projects also include Robert Eggers’ The Northman and Jon Watt’s Spider-Man: No Way Home.
Plemons was recently nominated for an Oscar for his performance in Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog. He also previously starred in Scott Cooper’s Antlers for Searchlight, and Jungle Cruise and Judas and the Black Messiah. Other credits includ The Irishman, Vice, The Post, Bridge of Spies and The Master. Plemons will next be seen starring in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.
Qualley recently starred in Claire Denis’ Stars at Noon. Other recent acclaimed film credits include Benedict Andrews’ Seberg and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. She earned an Emmy nomination for her performance in Netflix’s limited series Maid.
Lanthimos is represented by CAA; Stone is represented by Anonymous Content, WME and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole; and Dafoe by WME and Circle of Confusion. Plemons is repped by TalentWorks and Hirsch Wallerstein Hayum Matlof and Fishman, and Qualley by UTA and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern.
Alwyn, who had a breakout role in Ang Lee’s literary adaptation Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, also starred in Lanthimos’ The Favourite alongside Stone. “We are so excited to be collaborating with Joe once again after our extraordinary journey together on The Favourite. He is a brilliant actor and a welcome addition to the all-star cast Yorgos has put together here.” Searchlight Pictures presidents Matthew Greenfield and David Greenbaum said in a statement.
Wild to be getting two Lanthimos films in the space of six months.
Apparently he really peddled this through before Poor Things released as he thought Poor Things would wind up being a bit of a dud at least box office wise (I think Disney felt it wasn’t going to catch on either as they initially had it dropping in September before the festival circuit and only delayed it due to the strike). I had thought they would sit on this until next award season so the June drop is a bit of a surprise. It’ll be interesting to see if this is a “safer” film from Lanthimos to get into the better graces with studios or if this is going to be more experimental with him really charging forward with this one.
I guess the best thing to take from it is that it’s likely to be debuting at Cannes with that release date.
Summer release seems to indicate this won't be an awards player. Might be one of Yorgos' more out there movies, like Killing of a Sacred Deer or The Lobster, which are too cool for the Academy.
A triptych fable, following a man without choice who tries to take control of his own life; a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who was missing-at-sea has returned and seems a different person; and a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special ability, who is destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.
All countries
Argentina
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Colombia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Estonia
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
India
Latvia
Lithuania
Malaysia
New Zealand
Norway
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
Kinds of Kindness (2024)
This will be the third so
Linear Mode
