What’s next for Olivia Cooke after AppleTV+‘s “Slow Horses” and HBO‘s upcoming “Game Of Thrones” prequel “House Of The Dragon“? It looks like she’ll return to the thriller-horror genre for the first time since 2017’s “Thoroughbreds.”
READ MORE: Adam McKay Working On Script For Next Film & It’s All About “Big, Dirty Money”
The Hollywood Reporter broke the news that Cooke will headline the cast of Lionsgate‘s upcoming socially-minded horror project “Breeders.” And “Don’t Look Up” director Adam McKay is one of the brains behind the idea. While McKay won’t direct, he hatched the story idea with Brian Steele, a producer/writer on his “Death At The Wing” podcast. Steele writes the script for “Breeders,” and while plot details are fuzzy, the movie will have a similar tone to “Fresh,” Mimi Cave‘s divisive dating-gone-wrong horror movie that hit Hulu in March.
So, who will direct if McKay isn’t? Lionsgate has horror filmmaker Kelsey Bollig at the helm, making her feature directorial debut. It may be Bollig’s first feature, but she’s been in the horror biz for years. She won 18 festival awards for her first short, “Asking For A Friend,” while her second short, “The Fourth Wall,” won best horror film at the Nightmares Film Festival and the HollyShorts Film Festival. Her most recent short, “Kickstart My Heart,” debuted recently at Dances With Films, to rave reviews.
So, Lionsgate sees “Breeders” as a launching pad for Bollig’s film career. In a press release, Erin Westerman, Lionsgate’s studio head, said, “[Bollig’s] films come straight out of a horror sensibility she’s been honing her entire life, and “Breeders” is a perfect example — it’ll be terrifying and Olivia Cooke is perfect for it. It’s also a thrill to be working with Adam, who originated this idea and will shepherd Kelsey’s project with expertise and a first-rate sense of story.” Sounds like Lionsgate has high hopes for this project.
Catch Cooke onscreen next when “House Of The Dragon” premieres on HBO on August 21. As for McKay, post-“Winning Time” he’s hard at work on the script for his next film, which he claims is all about “big, dirty money.”
