Back in July, we heard that Amazon Studios was in talks to pick up the worldwide rights to a sci-fi thriller called Foe, which was set to star Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird), Paul Mescal (Normal People), and LaKeith Stanfield (Get Out). Deadline reports that Amazon’s acquisition of the project is now complete, but Foe lost Stanfield along the way. Filling the role Stanfield vacated is Aaron Pierre, who was recently seen in M. Night Shyamalan’s Old and the Amazon series The Underground Railroad.
Foe will begin filming in Australia next year, with Garth Davis (Lion) directing from a screenplay he wrote with author Iain Reid, based on Reid’s novel of the same name. (You can pick up a copy of Foe at THIS LINK.)
This “taut, sensual, psychological mind-bender” is set in
the near future, where corporate power and environmental decay are ravaging the planet. Junior and Hen are a young couple married seven years and living a solitary life on their isolated farm. One night, a stranger named Terrance knocks on their door, bringing news that throws their lives into turmoil: Junior has been randomly selected to travel to a large, experimental space station orbiting Earth. The most unusual part? Arrangements have already been made so that when he leaves, Hen won’t have a chance to miss him, because she won’t be left alone — not even for a moment. Hen will have familiar company that pushes her to make a life-changing decision.
Ronan will be playing Hen, with Mescal as Junior and Pierre as Terrance.
Davis is producing the film through his I Am That shingle. Kerry Kohansky-Roberts of AC Studios and Emile Sherman and Iain Canning of See-Saw Films are also producing. Reid and Samantha Lang serve as executive producers, while Libby Sharpe is co-producer. Foe is an Anonymous Content Studios production.
This is the second time a Reid novel is being turned into a film. He also wrote the novel that Charlie Kaufman’s Netflix movie I’m Thinking of Ending Things was based on.