Anya Taylor-Joy in Talks to Star in the Dark Comedy “The Menu”

Anya Taylor-Joy is perusing the menu…

Following her award-winning role on Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambitthe 25-year-old Argentine-British actress is in talks to star in Searchlight’s dark comedy The Menu.

Anya Taylor-Joy

Taylor-Joy would star opposite Ralph Fiennes. Mark Mylod, who has played a major part in the success of HBO’s Succession, will direct.

The film is a darkly comedic psychological thriller set in the world of eccentric culinary culture, centering on a young couple who visit an exclusive restaurant on a remote island where an acclaimed chef has prepared a lavish tasting menu. Taylor-Joy will play one half of the couple. Fiennes is playing the chef.

Will Tracy and Seth Reiss penned the script.

After her breakout role in Robert Eggers’ The WitchTaylor-Joy has been rising through the ranks and was handpicked to star in the M. Night Shyamalan thriller Split and its sequel Glass

She became one of the big winners of 2021 when her Netflix limited series Queen’s Gambit, about a chess prodigy in the 1960s, became one of the streamers biggest hits of 2020. She was also recently seen in the Focus Features film Emma

She has a busy 2021 ahead of her with starring roles in the Viking drama The Northman, the untitled David O. Russell film and Edgar Wright’s Last Night In SohoShe was also tapped to star in the Mad Max spinoff Furiosa in the title role.

Ana de Armas In Talks to Star in Film Adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s Novel “Deep Water”

Ana de Armasmay soon find herself in deep water…

The 31-year-old Cuban-Spanish actress is in talks to star opposite Ben Affleck in the film adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel Deep Water.

Ana de Armas

The film, to be directed by Adrian Lyne, is described as an erotic thriller, right in the wheelhouse Lyne established with such blockbusters as Indecent ProposalFatal Attraction, and 9 1/2 Weeks. The filmmaker has long been intrigued with this project, first setting it up with Fox 2000back in 2013. New Regency bought control of the property last year, and this gives them another plum project to go with the James Gray-directed Ad Astra with Brad Pitt, and the Robert Eggers-directed The Lighthouse.

Affleck and de Armas are in negotiations to play Vic and Melinda Van Allen, an attractive young married couple whose mind games with each other take a twisted turn when people around them start turning up dead. The couple staves off divorce in a loveless marriage by allowing each to take lovers, but it becomes messy as Highsmith exposed the surface facade of American suburban life.

Zack Helm and Sam Levinson have adapted from the Highsmith novel.

Lyne is eyeing a November production start on Deep Water, which will be fully financed by New Regency

Pending all the pieces falling into place, the plan is for the film to go through its deal with Fox/Disney.

de Armas is having her moment in Hollywood. She is about to begin shooting the Andrew Dominik-directed Netflix film Blonde, in which she plays iconic actress Marilyn Monroe, with talks going on for Adrien Brody to play Arthur Miller and Bobby Cannavale to play Joe DiMaggio in a fictionalized look at her life. Dominik worked for years on this project, and looked at many actresses for the role of Monroe. He was intrigued when he saw de Armas in Blade Runner 2049, and they worked long and hard with a dialect coach to lose her Cuban accented inflection for Monroe’s breathy delivery before a screen test pleased Netflix and Plan B’s Brad PittDede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner. She follows that film with the James Bond 25 film.