In October, news broke that Cate Blanchett would team up with Canadian avant-garde auteur Guy Maddin for his next feature, “Rumours.” That was already a super-intriguing combo, but Bleeker Street has announced another premier actress has joined the film’s cast: Alicia Vikander. What was once intriguing now becomes what will likely be one of 2024’s must-see movies.
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Bleeker also released some plot details for “Rumours,” which were unavailable when Blanchett’s casting was first announced. Maddin’s latest is a comedy that follows seven leaders of the world’s wealthiest liberal democracies at the annual G7 summit. When the group hikes together as they draft a provisional statement about the global crisis, they get lost in the woods, and things only worsen.
Here are some other names in the “Rumours” cast: Roy Dupuis, Charles Dance, Denis Ménochet, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Rolando Ravello, Takehiro Hira, and Zlato Burić. Production on “Rumours” has already wrapped up in Hungary, so expect the film to have a festival premiere later this year.
The synopsis alone will make Guy Maddin fans realize “Rumours” will be quite the departure for the director. Maddin co-writes/directs the film with Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson, whom he worked with on 2017’s “The Green Fog.” Bleecker Street handles the US theatrical release of “Rumours.”
Vikander’s casting gives her another upcoming performance along with “Hope,” a Korean drama. The actress last starred in last year’s “Firebrand” as Katherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of King Henry VIII. That film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last May. Other recent work for Vikander includes “The Green Knight,” “Beckett,” and “Blue Bayou,” all from 2021, as well as the Max series “Irma Vep” from Olivier Assayas.
As for “Rumours,” it’s a Square Peg production, Ari Aster and Lars Knudsen‘s banner that also made Aster’s “Hereditary” and “Dream Scenario.” Maddin’s latest is Square Peg’s second collaboration with Bleecker Street after the Zellner Brothers’ “Sasquatch Sunset,” which premieres at Sundance later this month.
Stay tuned on when “Rumours” will undoubtedly bow at a festival later this year. This will be Guy Maddin’s widest theatrical release to date, so expect all eyes to be on how this one does with critics and audiences.
