Celine Song’s secretive follow-up to Past Lives has lined up its core cast ahead of a rumoured sales launch at the upcoming European Film Market.
Celine Song’s Past Lives was one of 2023’s outstanding cinematic achievements: a beautiful film that stood out despite debuting in a year where we were blessed with lots of other great films. While the relationship drama may yet earn some Oscar recognition for its exquisite craft, Song is pressing ahead with her next project, a film titled Materialists.
We don’t know too much about this one at all, as A24 (the same studio that backed Past Lives) is keeping things under wraps, but we have heard that the film could shoot this spring and that seems even more likely know that we have a cast in place, or at the very least, close to being in place.
Deadline reports that ‘Dakota Johnson is in talks, and Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal circling.’ It looks as though Song will be heading to Hollywood in search of the cast for her next project, then, and that’s a trio of actors that will certainly raise the profile of the film. Johnson, Pascal and Evans are all in some way connected to giant superhero properties, with the former headlining this month’s Madame Web, while Pascal has been all but confirmed as one of the leads in Marvel Studios’ planned Fantastic Four film. As for Evans, his connection to the MCU is clear but since exiting the franchise, he’s struggled somewhat to find the right projects to reshape his career, post-Captain America.
In short, working on an A24 movie with a celebrated filmmaker seems like a savvy step for all three actors as none of them will wish to be pigeonholed into IP movies, especially at a time when independent storytelling is surging. We don’t yet know what Materialists will be about, but Deadline is stating that ‘it deals with a professional matchmaker who gets involved with a wealthy man but still harbours feelings for the broke actor-waiter she left behind.’
Song is said to have another project in the works, which has been snapped up by Searchlight Pictures, so it looks like she’ll be pretty busy for the foreseeable future. As for Materialists, we’ll bring you more casting news as we hear it as the film edges closer to production.
Read more: A24 is changing its release strategy – can the world’s coolest studio pull it off?
