Five-time Emmy nominee Lena Headey is expanding her creative skills. After playing massive fan-favorite and anti-hero Cersei Lannister on HBO hit series Game of Thrones, the actor is jumping to the other side of the camera to bring to life her feature film directing debut, as Deadline reveals. Headey will direct Violet, a thriller that follows two women who meet while traveling solo. They hit it off immediately, but none of them is who they say they are.
Described as a cross between Killing Eve, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Single White Female, Violet is based on a best-selling novel by author SJI Holliday. While a first-look trailer might be a while away, it’s safe to say that we can expect a cat-and-mouse story brimming with deception, double crossing, obsession, and dangerous attitudes.
Even though this is her feature film debut, Headey is no stranger to the director’s chair: she helmed the BAFTA-nominated short film The Trap, starring her fellow Game of Thrones star Michelle Fairley. In addition Headey also directed two music videos: “You Mean the World to Me” by Freya Ridings, and “Miracle” by Madeon.
When talking about being able to tell the story through her vision, Headey praised the source material and celebrated the fact that her debut will be a project centered around complex female characters:
“Susi [JI Holliday, the author]’s Violet is a compulsive page turner that stayed with me long after I finished the book — it’s exciting that my first feature as a director will be such an intense female thriller. It’s a wild ride to the finish with vast cinematic scope, centering around two very complex women who will completely unravel over the course of the film. I can’t wait to get rolling.”
Violet is yet to get a release date and trailer.
You can check of the novel’s official synopsis here:
Carrie's best friend has an accident and can no longer make the round-the-world trip they'd planned together, so Carrie decides to go it alone. Violet is also travelling alone, after splitting up with her boyfriend in Thailand. She is also desperate for a ticket on the Trans-Siberian Express, but there is nothing available. When the two women meet in a Beijing Hotel, Carrie makes the impulsive decision to invite Violet to take her best friend's place. Thrown together in a strange country, and the cramped cabin of the train, the women soon form a bond. But as the journey continues, through Mongolia and into Russia, things start to unravel – because one of these women is not who she claims to be… A tense and twisted psychological thriller about obsession, manipulation and toxic friendships, Violet also reminds us that there's a reason why mother told us not to talk to strangers.