Update: Sony Pictures Classics says, unfortunately, Anya-Taylor-Joy is not in the film. The Cinemacon event program apparently had a misprint.
Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar is making his English-language feature debut with “The Room Next Door,” which has heavy-weight actresses Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton in lead roles. There is a casting report that says Anya Taylor-Joy (“The Menu,” “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”) has taken part in the pic as well. The Film Stage report cites information from a CinemaCon event program guide (unfortunately without screenshots or images) and mentions the actress among the cast in the Sony Pictures Classics movie.
A previous report from Cineurope claimed that Taylor-Joy could be playing Swinton’s “resentful daughter” in “The Room Next Door,” which may mean they were on to something. Production kicked off back in January in New York City, and would likely mean she’s already shot her scenes.
Here is the synopsis for “The Room Next Door” via Almodóvar’s production company El Deseo:
“The story of ‘The Room Next Door’ follows a very imperfect mother and a resentful daughter separated by a great misunderstanding. Among them, another woman, Ingrid (played by Julianne Moore), a friend of the mother’s, is the repository of their pain and bitterness. Martha, the mother (Tilda Swinton), is a war reporter, and Ingrid is an autofiction novelist.”
“The film talks about the unlimited cruelty of wars, the two different ways these two writers have of approaching and writing about reality, also about death, and how friendship and sexual pleasure can be the best allies to deal with horror,” Almodóvar said in a statement back in February when Sony acquired the film. “It also talks about the pleasure of waking up to birds bringing a new day at a house built on a natural reserve in New England, where the two friends live an extraordinary and awkwardly sweet situation.”
While Taylor-Joy and Almodóvar were spotted together being friendly during the Vanity Fair Oscar party last month (see pics below), that doesn’t automatically mean they are working together. With CinemaCon in full swing this week, we’ll likely get confirmation or full-blown denials in the next few days (if not today, about other actors appearing in “The Room Next Door,” potentially in the form of a presentation from Sony with the director and cast appearing to promote the movie. Almodovoar, Moore, Swinto and Taylor-Joy would be such a terrific collaboration, so fingers crossed this is true news.