Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos made a big splash in 2010 when his utterly bizarre feature Dogtooth was released and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film Of The Year (ultimately losing out to Susanne Bier's In A Better World), but only now is the filmmaker ready to make his English-language debut. The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Lanthimos is now putting the pieces together for his latest movie, a strange-sounding project called The Lobster, and has lined up some big names to star, including Zero Dark Thirty‘s Jason Clarke, Skyfall‘s Ben Whishaw, and Blue Is The Warmest Color‘s Léa Seydoux.
Much like both Dogtooth and his last film, Alps, Lanthimos co-wrote the script for the new film with Efthymis Filippou, and while specific details about the plot and the characters aren't currently available, THR does makes note of its weird-yet-awesome sounding premise. The story is described as a romantic drama and will be set in a dystopian future where all single people must find a mate within 45 days. The consequence for failing to follow this societal law is that you get turned into an animal and sent into the woods. It will center on a man who is scheduled to be transformed but manages to escape. The trade sadly doesn't mention what characters the actors will be playing or how they fit into the plot, but I really only have one major question at this stage: where does the lobster come in?
Lanthimos' movies aren't exactly the most accessible titles out there, as its understandable that some people may be turned off by just how strange everything in his movies are, but if you're into that sort of thing his works are definitely worth a look. You can watch trailers for his two most recent films below.
Also set to appear in the movie, according to Deadline, will be Olivia Colman (Peep Show, Hot Fuzz), Ariane Labed (Before Midnight) and Angeliki Papoulia, who was in both Dogtooth and Alps. Production won't begin until March, so don't expect to see the finished product before the second half of next year - probably at the Toronto or Venice film festivals.
