Back in 2012, Maisy Stella and her older sister Lennon Stella went viral with their YouTube cover of the Robyn song “Call Your Girlfriend.” Soon after, the sisters landed acting roles on the TV series Nashville (pictured above), where their musical performances continued as they appeared on 119 episodes of the show. Nashville wrapped up back in 2018, and six years later Maisy Stella returned to the acting world with her first film, the comedy My Old Ass, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and sees Stella sharing the screen with Aubrey Plaza (they’re pictured together below). Amazon MGM Studios will be giving My Old Ass a limited theatrical release in the U.S. on August 2nd – and while we wait for that, Variety reports that Stella has landed her second film role. She is joining previously announced cast members Ewan McGregor and Anne Hathaway in a mysterious project It Follows director David Robert Mitchell is making for Warner Bros. Pictures, Jackson Pictures, and J.J. Abrams’ company Bad Robot.
Details on the character Stella will be playing in this untitled thriller are being kept under wraps. In fact, pretty much everything about the project is being kept under wraps. Last year, film journalist Jeff Sneider reported the rumor that this happens to be “a dinosaur movie set in the ’80s”. In their report of the McGregor news, The Hollywood Reporter also said that their sources have described it as “a family adventure set in the 1980s that involves dinosaurs.” They added that Hathaway and McGregor would be playing the parents in this family adventure. Deadline’s sources simply described the project as a “thrill ride”… and it’s going to be shot in Imax to maximize the thrills.
It isn’t surprising that there’s not much information available, since this is a Bad Robot production, and Bad Robot likes to keep its movies as secretive as possible. Remember, they even managed to keep Cloverfield a secret until the trailer was released, and hid the fact that 10 Cloverfield Lane was a Cloverfield movie until the trailer for that one was released. Those are just a couple examples of their secrecy.
Mitchell has written the screenplay and is producing the movie with J.J. Abrams and Hannah Minghella for Bad Robot, as well as Jackson Pictures’ Matt Jackson. Jake Weiner and Chris Bender of Good Fear Content serve as executive producers. Sheila Walcott and Zach Hamby are overseeing the project for Warner Bros. Motion Picture Group.
Mitchell made his feature directorial debut with the 2010 comedy The Myth of the American Sleepover, then had a hit on his hands with It Follows in 2014. He stumbled a bit with his 2018 follow-up Under the Silver Lake, but now he’s rebounding with this project and the long-awaited It Follows sequel They Follow. Of course, since the project is set up at Warner Bros., now we just need to hope they won’t end up scrapping the movie for a tax write-off.
Are you interested in this mysterious Bad Robot project? What do you think of Maisy Stella joining the cast? Let us know by leaving a comment below.