'Drive' and 'Bronson' director Nicolas Winding Refn returns with 'Her Private Hell'

After a decade-long hiatus from feature-length filmmaking, Danish auteur Nicolas Winding Refn is back with a new and, as expected, another neon-drenched thriller. An official first look has been released online.

Titled "Her Private Hell", the film is headlined by Sophie Thatcher, who recently had a runaway horror hit in the form of "Companion", and made significant appearances in "Heretic" (opposite Hugh Grant) and the hit survival thriller series "Yellowjackets".

Other cast members include Charles Melton ("May December"), Kristine Froseth ("The Society", "The Buccaneers"), and Havana Rose Liu ("Bottoms"). The film will also feature some big names such as Dougray Scott ("Mission Impossible 2", "My Oxford Year"), Diego Calva ("Babylon", "The Night Manager" Season 2), Aoi Yamada ("Perfect Days"), Shioli Kutsuna ("Deadpool & Wolverine"), and Hidetoshi Nishijima ("Drive My Car").

The film will be presented Out of Competition at the Cannes Film Festival, where he also brought "The Neon Demon". In the last decade, Refn was exploring the long-format storytelling space, creating and directing two television shows, "Too Old to Die Young" and "Copenhagen Cowboy", in addition to creating "The Famous Five", the British series based on the popular Enid Blyton book series.

The official synopsis for "Her Private Hell" is as follows: "As a strange mist engulfs a futuristic metropolis and unleashes an elusive, deadly presence, a troubled young woman sets out in search of her father. In this quest, her fate crosses with that of an American GI engaged in a desperate journey to snatch his daughter from Hell."

Refn had pitched "Her Private Hell" as an original story characterised by “glitter, sex, and violence” — a familiar territory for the filmmaker behind "Drive", "Only God Forgives", and the "Pusher" trilogy.