Yorgos Lanthimos starts negotiations with Willem Dafoe for poor things
Just over a month after the project was first announced, Yorgos Lanthimos’ adaptation of Poor things wants to expand its cast as the four-time Oscar nominee has started talks with his four-man Oscar nominee Willem DafoeThe lighthouse) to play in the film according to the deadline.
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It is currently unclear who will portray Dafoe in the film, but should his deal be finalized this would add another project to the legendary actor’s already extensive dance card, with other projects including reunions with Wes Anderson for The French shipping and Robert Eggers for The north manand in Guillermo del Toro’s star-studded thriller Nightmare Alley and with Paul Schrader The card counter next to Oscar Isaac.
Dafoe has remained very busy following his Oscar-nominated work on The Florida Project and this year is no exception as several projects have been postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He will team up with Wes Anderson on his next painting, The French Dispatch, and will also reunite with Robert Eggers in The Northman. Other notable credits include appearing alongside Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett in Guillermo del Toro’s next film Nightmare Alley, which is bowing this winter and will also appear alongside Oscar Isaac in Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter.
First published in 1992, Poor things is a Victorian novel starring Emma Stone as Bella Baxter – a beautiful young erotomaniac who was brought back to life with a child’s brain. It was also inspired by Mary Shelly’s classic Gothic novel Frankenstein.
Get a copy of the novel here!
The official synopsis of the film reads: “Allegedly the memories of the late 19th century Glasgow doctor Archibald McCandless, the tale follows the bizarre life of the transsexual, volatile Bella Baxter, an emancipated woman and a Frankenstein woman. Bella is not her real name; As Victorian Blessington, she drowned to escape her abusive husband, but a surgeon removed the brain from the fetus she was carrying and placed it in her skull to resuscitate her. Resuscitated Bella is the intellectual age of a child. She is engaged to marry McCandless, molds him with chloroform, and runs off with a seedy lawyer who takes her on a whirlwind adventure, hopping from Alexandria to Odessa into a Paris brothel. As her brain matures, Bella develops a social conscience, but her proposed wedding to Archie is cut short when she is recognized as Victoria by her rightful husband, General Sir Aubrey Blessington. “
The script for the film is being adapted by Lanthimos and Tony McNamara, with whom he previously worked on Lanthimos’ Oscar-nominated drama and shared a nomination for Best Original Screenplay with Deborah Davis. Production is slated to begin this fall.
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also The favouriteStone is also best known for her acclaimed appearances in Just A., Bird man, La La Land, and Battle of the sexes. She will next be featured in Disney’s live-action film, entitled Cruella at the center is the legendary 101 Dalmatian villain Cruella de Vil.
(Image credit: Stephane Cardinale – Corbis / Corbis via Getty Images)
