Christopher Abbott will join star Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo in Yorgos Lanthimos' next film, Poor Things. Per Deadline, the Catch-22 star will play an unknown role in the adaptation of Alasdair Gray's 1992 novel of the same name.
Stone stars as Bella Baxter, a young woman brought back to life with the brain of an infant. Blending the Victorian sci-fi horror of Frankenstein with elements of memory, identity, and gender politics, the story is a natural fit for Lanthimos, whose eccentric body of work touches on all of those themes, often with a healthy dose of absurdity for good measure. Abbott, who earned an Emmy nomination for his role as Yossarian in Catch-22 from director George Clooney, joins the previously announced cast members, including Willem Dafoe and Ramy Youssef.
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The script was adapted by Tony McNamara, who earned an Oscar nomination for co-writing the script for Lanthimos' The Favourite, in which Stone also co-starred. The new film marks McNamara's second collaboration with Lanthimos, but the third with Stone, since he wrote the script for Cruella as well as its upcoming sequel. Additionally, Stone co-starred with Damien Bonnard for Lanthimos' The Artist on the Composer installation for the Greek National Opera, set to debut September 23 at the Stavros Niarchos Hall.
Stone is producing the film via Fruit Tree, the production company she founded last year with writer-director Dave McCary. Lanthimos is also producing, alongside longtime collaborators Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe. Here's hoping they can recreate some of the big, weird energy that has made Lanthimos' recent output so fascinating.
Production on Poor Things is scheduled to start later this year, with an expected premiere in 2022.