The film is being produced by Oscar winners Iain Canning and Emile Sherman (“The King’s Speech”), as well as Joanna Laurie of See-Saw Films and Christophe Spadone (“The Father”) alongside Zeller. Film4 are co-financing. Shooting is expected to start in the coming weeks. has joined the cast of “The Son,” Florian Zeller’s follow up to his Oscar-winning feature debut “The Father,” Variety has learned.

Kirby, who was Oscar-nominated for “Pieces of a Woman,” will star in the film opposite Laura Dern and Hugh Jackman. As with “The Father,” “The Son” was adapted by Zeller and Christopher Hampton (“Dangerous Liaisons”), from Zeller’s critically acclaimed stage play. Zeller and Hampton just won the best adapted screenplay Oscar.

“The Son” focuses on Peter (Jackman) as his busy life with new partner Emma (Kirby) and their baby is thrown into disarray when his ex-wife Kate (Dern) turns up with their teenage son, Nicholas. The young man is is troubled, distant and angry, playing truant from school for months. Peter strives to be a better father, searching to help his son with those intimate and instinctive moments of family happiness. But the weight of Nicholas’ condition sets the family on a dangerous course.
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Vanessa has been added to a new casting list! She will join Jake Gyllenhaal on the survival thriller Suddenly which will be directed by Thomas Bidegain.

The movie will be the sophomore directorial outing for acclaimed screenwriter Thomas Bidegain, known for scripting films such as A Prophet, Rust And Bone and Dheepan, which won the Palme d’Or. Bidegain is also scripting the English-language project.

The feature is based on Isabelle Autissier’s French-language novel Soudain Seuls, which follows a couple who become stranded on an island in the South Atlantic and must fight for survival when their dream journey becomes a nightmare. The novel shines a light on the dynamics of their relationship and also holds a mirror up to modern society.
Studiocanal is launching world sales this week and is teaming up with Tresor Films and Gyllenhaal’s Nine Stories on the blue chip prospect.
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Here’s one of the reviews shared by Italian Studies release after Tribeca. The reviews are mixed up, but we hope that it gets picked up soon by a distributor!

In Gimme the Loot and Tramps, writer-director Adam Leon displayed a keen ear for the vernacular of youth and a captivating light touch observing the fluid shifts in his characters from spiky friendship to romantic intimacy. There are plenty of young New Yorkers on hand again in his third feature, Italian Studies, but precious little engagement as they drone on about their fears, frustrations and yearnings. At the center of this supposed reflection on dislocation and connection is Vanessa Kirby, playing a British writer with temporary amnesia in a display of actressy self-indulgence whose charms are far exceeded by its brief 81-minute run time.

Saved to a slim extent by cinematographer Brett Jutkiewicz’s dreamy visuals of New York City in the pre-COVID summertime and by dependably mood-enhancing composer Nicholas Britell’s shimmering score, the film trades the agreeably limber storytelling and seeming spontaneity of Leon’s previous work for a narrative both aimless and inert. More than anything it recalls one of those “lost weekend” stories about Hollywood celebrities that used to be fodder for late-night comedians in times less sensitive to mental illness.

The spark for the project was the ascending star’s availability and desire to work with Leon. While they were tossing around concepts, Kirby reportedly told the director, “I want you to throw me out into the streets of New York and to challenge me.” Apparently, making it interesting for the rest of us wasn’t a concern.
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