The Spanish auteur’s first feature-length film in the English language has been announced (kind of) thanks to Tilda Swinton.
We’ve known for a while that Pedro Almodóvar, the legendary Spanish filmmaker, has been planning to make his first feature-length film in the English language. For a while he was attached to A Manual For Cleaning Women, with the plan being for that to be his English language feature debut until he pulled out back in September of last year.
At the time, Almodóvar said it was “a very painful decision” before also adding “unfortunately, I no longer feel able to fully realise this film”.
As far as we know, Cate Blanchett is still attached to that project but we haven’t heard anything since then regarding its status. However, even though he walked away from that one, it was just a matter of time before Almodóvar found another project to his liking. He’s made a couple of shorts in the English language to prepare himself too. There was this year’s Strange Way of Life featuring Pedro Pascal and Ethan Hawke, whilst Tilda Swinton starred in Almodóvar’s 2021 short film The Human Voice.
It’s Tilda Swinton that has spilled the tea regarding Almodóvar’s next project, letting slip that she’ll be working with the filmmaker again in an interview with the French outlet, Les Inrockuptibles (via World of Reel). The project is set to feature two other female leads, so there’ll be more casting news at some point down the line although the title, The Room Next Door s being floated around so until we hear otherwise, that appears to be the name of the project.
As far as we can tell, the film is still in pre-production so it’s anybody’s guess as to when it goes before cameras. Still, anticipation for this one will be high given Almodóvar’s status, and the fact that we’ve been waiting some time now for him to make this transition. We’ll bring you more on this project as we hear it.
