Yor­gos Lan­thi­mos has two new projects on the go

The Greek direc­tor Yor­gos Lan­thi­mos, best known for 2014’s satir­i­cal com­e­dy The Lob­ster, is fast emerg­ing as one of the most excit­ing film­mak­ers out there. Fol­low­ing that film’s sleep­er suc­cess, we couldn’t be more intrigued to see what’s he’s got up his sleeve for the future. Well, it seems like there’s a Lan­thi­mos boun­ty on the hori­zon, as he has teamed-up again with Col­in Far­rell (star of The Lob­ster) for The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Even the omi­nous­ly vio­lent title nur­tures our grow­ing anticipation.

So what do we know so far? The film, sup­pos­ed­ly inspired by a Euripi­des tragedy, and will be a psy­cho­log­i­cal thriller with a touch of the super­nat­ur­al. It fol­lows a charis­mat­ic sur­geon (Far­rell) who takes a young teenag­er (Bar­ry Keoghan) under his wing. He is then forced to make an unthink­able sac­ri­fice once his life begins falling apart and the behav­iour of this young pro­tégé turns sinister.

Shot in Cincin­nati over the sum­mer of 2016, the film will also star Nicole Kid­man as the wife of Farrel’s char­ac­ter, and Clue­less actress, Ali­cia Sil­ver­stone, as the teenager’s moth­er. Raf­fey Cas­sidy, Sun­ny Suljic, and Bill Camp will also fea­ture along with a clutch of local Cincin­nati med­ical pro­fes­sion­als – Lan­thi­mos hav­ing want­ed the most real­is­tic back­ground as possible.

But what about the tone of the film? In an inter­view with Busi­ness Insid­er, Far­rell revealed much more about what to expect say­ing, ​“I can say it’s –ugh, God – it’s eerier than The Lob­ster… Yeah, I don’t know, it felt pret­ty bleak to me. I mean, when I read the script it was extra­or­di­nary and to work with Yor­gos again was amaz­ing.” Ok, so it is even ​‘eerier’ than The Lob­ster, a film that includes a numer­ous sui­cide attempts, a silent dis­co in a for­rest and a dog beat­en to death.

Far­rell fur­ther praised the direc­tor say­ing that, ​“Yor­gos is so specif­i­cal­ly mind­ed, he’s so clin­i­cal in his direc­tion of the film… I’ll wait to see what the film is, but it’s set in a con­tem­po­rary world, in Amer­i­ca, there are hos­pi­tals and din­ers, parks, things that we will recog­nise and have expe­ri­enced our­selves, but yet there’s this sim­i­lar kind of uneasi­ness through all the inter­ac­tions and all the things that take place. It was unnerv­ing read­ing the script. I kind of felt nau­seous after read­ing it.”

Let’s hope we feel that way after watch­ing it. It’s cur­rent­ly in post-pro­duc­tion and we are wait­ing on the trail­er for more of an insight into this intrigu­ing film which is set hit screens next year. As with The Lob­ster, this could well be revealed to the world at the Cannes Film Fes­ti­val in May 2017.

But wait, there’s more… Also on the boil is The Favourite, with a script writ­ten by Deb­o­rah Davis and Tony McNa­ma­ra. Lan­thi­mos will direct this fea­ture cen­tred on the last Monarch of the house of Stu­arts, Queen Anne, who reigned from 1702 to 1707. Though she is yet to have a sig­nif­i­cant biopic to her name, Olivia Col­man, a British actress qui­et­ly tak­ing the world by storm, has been ordained to play the lead.

Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone are also on board, por­tray­ing the Queen’s favourites, Sarah Churchill and Abi­gail Masham respec­tive­ly. Being a lit­tle fur­ther down the road than The Killing of a Sacred Deer, even less is known about this one. But what we do know is that Masham came from hum­ble begin­nings, then rose up in the Queen’s house­hold to usurp Churchill in Anne’s affec­tions. (It is even rumoured that Masham and the Queen had an affair.)

Kate Winslet has already dropped out of the role before Rachel Weisz re-joined Lan­thi­mos again and took over. There may be some more reshuf­fling yet. But nonethe­less, pow­er strug­gles, high stakes, and Lan­thi­mos at the helm – it is safe to say that this is very high on our list of must-sees.