Rich Flu: Rosamund Pike to star in virus thriller from The Platform director

Director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia got a lot of positive attention for his feature debut The Platform, which had a very successful release through the Netflix streaming service. Now he has set up his second feature, a virus thriller called Rich Flu. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) has signed on to star in the film and production is scheduled for the fall.

Spencer and Jackie director Pablo Larraín is producing Rich Flu with Juan de Dios Larraín, through their Fabula banner. Gaztelu-Urrutia is also producing the film, alongside Carlos Juárez, Albert Soler, and Nostromo Pictures’ Adrián Guerra and Núria Valls.

Scripted by Gaztelu-Urrutia and Pedro Rivero, who co-wrote The Platform with David Desola, Rich Flu begins with

a strange disease killing off some of the richest and most influential people on the planet starting with the billionaires, then the multi-millionaires and so on progressively. Now it threatens to strike anyone with any sort of fortune, and no one knows where it might end. With the whole planet panicking and humankind’s very way of life headed for collapse, people attempt to flood the market with assets the world no longer wants. The thriller explores how far one would go to save their skin when the wealth that made the world go round suddenly becomes its most dangerous commodity.

That definitely sounds like a story that would come from the team behind The Platform.

Gaztelu-Urrutia had this to say about the project:

Rich Flu is an immense physical saga, full of twists, obstacles, and surprises. But, above all, it is a complex and provocative emotional journey to the depths of the human soul and the pinnacles of our glorious self-indulgence. Only an artist with the bravery and intelligence of Rosamund Pike could bring this film to life.”

Sierra/Affinity is handling international sales and will be presenting Rich Flu to potential buyers at the European Film Market. The company’s Kristen Figeroid said the project allows the director to expand “his world-building capabilities to a global stage for this timely, unflinching thriller.”