The talk of the Cannes world, 'Outer Dark' by László Nemes, will star two rising talents, Jacob Elordi and Lily Rose-Depp. The movie is an adaptation of the critically acclaimed 1968 novel authored by Cormac McCarthy (who wrote 'No Country For Old Men').
The film will begin production in 2026, marking the English-language directorial debut of Oscar-winning Hungarian director László Nemes. He is best known for directing 'Son of Saul', for which he won the 2016 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
The movie, described as a dark fairytale, is set in Appalachia during the Great Depression. The plot follows an incestuous relationship, with Depp playing a young woman who gives birth to her brother’s baby. The brother (played by Elordi) tells his sister that the newborn died of natural causes, but he secretly leaves the baby in the woods to die.
However, the sister uncovers this lie and sets out to find the baby for herself. As both brother and sister separately move through the countryside, three terrifying strangers follow, wreaking death and destruction in their wake.
Nemes will also be writing the screenplay along with Clara Royer and producing the movie with Mike Goodridge from Good Chaos. The executive producers are Ilene Feldman, Ori Eisen of Original Films and Nicolas Gonda.
At the Cannes Film Festival, the director expressed his excitement about the film saying:
“Since reading Outer Dark the first time, it has been my dream to make it into a film, and to find the appropriate cinematic language that would do justice to Cormac McCarthy’s evocative and cosmological work. Joined by two magnetic actors, I now feel it’s possible”.
“The extraordinary source material is a profound inspiration to build a unique world that vibrates with life and death at the same time. An exciting road movie, a terrible and beautiful journey into the labyrinth of the human soul — this is the ambition I have for Outer Dark,” he added, as per a Deadline report.