Andrew Haigh surprised everyone with his last project, BBC‘s “The North Water,” a grisly adaptation of a novel about the doomed crew on a whaling vessel in the Arctic. Critics loved the show, but it’s quite a departure from Haigh’s understated earlier work, like 2011’s queer festival darling “Weekend” or 2015’s “45 Years.”
But “Strangers,” Haigh’s next movie, looks more in line with those films. And he has a stellar cast of UK actors to help him with it. Variety reports that Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Claire Foy, and Jamie Bell have signed on for Haigh’s first movie since 2017’s “Lean On Pete.” Scott and Mescal are especially exciting castings, as they’re breakout stars now thanks to their respective roles in “Fleabag” and “Normal People.” But Foy and Bell working with Haigh is also thrilling, thanks to Foy’s work as Queen Elizabeth II on “The Crown” and Bell, well, being a UK actor of note since his childhood turn in 2000’s “Billy Elliot.”
Haigh writes and directs “Strangers” from his loose adaptation of Taichi Yamada‘s award-winning novel. The film follows Scott’s Adam, a London-based screenwriter, who has a chance encounter with Mescal, his mysterious neighbor. Afterward, Adam gets pulled back to his childhood home where he discovers his long-deceased parents, Foy and Bell, are still alive –and they look the same age as the day they died three decades earlier.
Scott appears next in the Amazon original series “Ripley.” As for Mescal, he appeared in Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun” at Cannes in May, and just wrapped production on the musical “Carmen.” Foy stars next in Sarah Polley‘s upcoming film “Women Talking” with Jessie Buckley, Rooney Mara, and Frances McDormand. And Bell currently stars in the AppleTV+ show “Shining Girls” with Elizabeth Moss.
“Strangers” has only been just announced, but expect it to have a late 2023 release.