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Director Troy Edward Shults is reportedly at work on a new film starring Abel Tesfaye, Jenna Ortega and Barry Keoghan. The news was revealed in a World of Reel story, which added that Tesfaye (aka The Weeknd) and Reza Fahim would be co-authoring the script with Shults.
Shults came to prominence with his critically acclaimed debut film Krisha, which was released in 2015, followed by It Came At Night and Waves.
Though details have not been announced, it’s rumored that the new film is to be a loose remake of Misery, the film that Rob Reiner made back in 1990 as an adaptation of a Steven King novel. Reiner’s Misery starred James Caan, Kathy Bates, and Lauren Bacall in a story about a novelist (played by Caan) and the deranged nurse (played by Bates) who sequesters him in her remote cabin after rescuing him in a car crash during a blizzard.
In Shults’s upcoming remake, Ortega will reportedly play a deranged fan stalking The Weeknd, to be played by himself. According to press reports, the film will open with the real-life incident in 2015 when the musician lost his voice during a concert.
Producers of the new Shults offering will reportedly include Tesfaye, Fahim, Kevin Turen, and Harrison Kreiss. Other principals will include Chayse Irvin as cinematographer and Daniel Lopatin as composer. Irvin is noted for her recent work on Blonde, Andrew Dominik’s fictionalized account of the life of Marilyn Monroe. Lopatin, also known as Oneohtrix Point Never or OPN, is an experimental electronic-music composer who has composed the scores for the films Good Time and Uncut Gems.
The Weeknd has recently been seen in The Idol series at HBO. Ortega, who is a veteran of The Scream and Wednesday franchises as well as several Disney productions, will soon appear in Miller’s Girl, Alba, Beetlejuice 2, and Death of a Unicorn.