It goes without saying that Maggie Gyllenhaal‘s sophomore feature as a director, “The Bride!” was a big swing, and an even bigger miss, for Warner Bros. earlier this year. Big ideas and fascinating vision aside, the movie was an undeniable flop, and a major part of that was due to an extensive post-production period that included the studio taking editing duties out of Gyllenhaal’s hands. After a debacle like “The Bride!”, a bold movie that’s not without merit, one would think Warner Bros. and Gyllenhaal would go their separate ways. Apparently, that’s not the case, and Gyllenhaal’s next picture at the studio may be her biggest swing yet.
THR reports that Warner Bros. has optioned Rachel Cushner‘s 2024 novel “Creation Lake” for Gyllenhaal to adapt and direct. Gyllenhaal will also produce the project, guaranteeing her a long leash creatively. For those familiar with Cushner’s novel, the news will come as a massive surprise. “Creation Lake,” about a female spy whose mission to disrupt an anarcho-primitivist farming collective in rural France leads her to reconsider her life and career, is a thorny, cerebral, and nihilistic piece of fiction, with little broad appeal to a general audience. In other words, this adaptation doesn’t endear itself to box-office success, which one would expect Warner Bros. to seek after “The Bride!” recouped just $24 million worldwide on a $90 million budget.
Then there’s the subject matter and tone of Cushner’s book. Critical reception and accolades side (the novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and longlisted for both the National Book Award and the Pen Faulkner Award for fiction), “Creation Lake” is pessimistic, deliberately devious, and preoccupied with radical politics, featuring a cynical and frigid female lead. Is there an audience for a movie like this in the mid-late 2020s? A very small one, certainly, but by no means a mainstream one. One wonders, then, what sort of budget Warner Bros. movie co-chief Pam Abdy will give Gyllenhaal for this one. Expect a number more in the range of her debut, “The Lost Daughter” than the near-$100 million budget of “The Bride!”
Still, give kudos to Abdy for giving “Creation Lake” the green light. Kushner is an exceptional writer with a singular voice. And despite what a mess “The Bride!” ended up, the movie hints that Gyllenhaal may have something special in her with more fine-tuning. One wonders, for example, who Gyllenhaal will cast as spy Sadie Smith. An actress with something inscrutable about them comes to mind: decades ago, Isabelle Huppert would’ve been perfect in the part, but no one of age in contemporary Hollywood comes to mind right now.
Stay tuned for more details on “Creation Lake” as they arrive. Expect the film in theaters sometime in 2028.
