Last week, it was announced that James McAvoy is reteaming with his Split and Glass producers at Blumhouse for a psychological thriller called Speak No Evil, which Universal Pictures will be giving a theatrical release on August 9, 2024. Now Deadline reports that McAvoy is being joined in the cast by Mackenzie Davis, whose credits include Terminator: Dark Fate, Blade Runner 2049, Black Mirror, Halt and Catch Fire, and Station Eleven. Details on the characters McAvoy and Davis will be playing have not been revealed.
James Watkins, whose previous credits include Eden Lake and The Woman in Black, will be writing and directing the film, which will center on a family who takes a dream holiday to an idyllic country house, only to have the vacation turn into a psychological nightmare. Speak No Evil is a remake of a 2022 Danish film called Gæsterne, which was directed by Christian Tafdrup. The director wrote the screenplay for the film with his brother Mads Tafdrup. Gæsterne was nominated for eleven Danish Film Awards, which are the equivalent to what the Oscars are in the United States. That film had the following synopsis: A Danish family visits a Dutch family they met on a holiday. What was supposed to be an idyllic weekend slowly starts unraveling as the Danes try to stay polite in the face of unpleasantness. And if you’re interested in checking it out, it’s on the Shudder streaming service under the title Speak No Evil.
Blumhouse founder Jason Blum is producing the Speak No Evil remake. Christian Tafdrup serves as executive producer alongside Paul Ritchie, Jacob Jarek, and Bea Sequeira.
Have you watched Gæsterne / the original Speak No Evil? If so, are you interested in seeing a Blumhouse remake that stars James McAvoy and Mackenzie Davis? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
I still haven’t seen the original, but Watkins and Blumhouse are definitely off to a good start with the casting of the remake. James McAvoy and Mackenzie Davis are both solid additions to any cast. It will be interesting to see how this turns out, and how it measures up to its predecessor.