When the "GRAVITY meets BURIED" contained survival thriller O2 was first announced in 2017, Anne Hathaway was attached to star in it. Earlier this year, it was announced that Alexandre Aja would be producing the film, with his frequent collaborator Franck Khalfoun directing and Noomi Rapace taking over the lead role. Just five months later, Rapace has moved on, Aja has taken the helm, and the project has its third leading lady: Melanie Laurent of INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, NOW YOU SEE ME, ENEMY, and 6 UNDERGROUND.
O2 is now in production, and is being performed in French. Laurent is joined in the cast by Mathieu Amalric and Malik Zidi.
Directed by Aja from a screenplay by Christie LeBlanc, O2 will tell the story of
a young woman who wakes up in a medical cryo unit. She doesn’t remember who she is or how she ended up sequestered in a box no larger than a coffin. As she’s running out of oxygen, she must rebuild her memory to find a way out of her nightmare.
O2 is a Netflix production. Aja and Gregory Levasseur are producing it with Vincent Maraval, Brahim Chioua and Noemie Devide of Getaway Films. Maraval is also CEO of Wild Bunch International, which presented O2 to buyers at the European Film Market in February.
Aja had this to say about the project:
After a period spent in lockdown, a project which in its core explores confinement and claustrophobia was a no-brainer, almost a necessity. I am very enthusiastic to collaborate with Wild Bunch and Melanie Laurent and to begin a beautiful creative adventure with Netflix."
Maraval added:
With thanks to Netflix, we are delighted to be able to bring Alexandre Aja back to France. We worked with him on PIRANHA 3D and are excited to collaborate again on O2: an ambitious film in a genre that French cinema is not often exploring."
David Kosse, VP of International Film at Netflix, and Gaelle Mareschi, Creative Manager, International Original Film, released the following statement:
We are extremely excited to be working with French cult director Alexandre Aja, surrounded by a fantastic French cast led by Melanie Laurent, and brought to us by Vincent Maraval. With O2, Aja is taking us on a thrilling and unexpected ride physically but also emotionally, bringing his imagination to another level."
O2 will be available to watch on the Netflix streaming service sometime in mid-2021. I always check out anything Aja makes, so I will be watching this for sure.