Tilda Swinton has built an entire career working with auteurs, from her early days with Derek Jarman to her recent work with Wes Anderson, David Fincher, and Joanna Hogg. And she’ll continue the trend in upcoming projects too, as The Film Stage reports the actress will work with Pedro Almodóvar on his next film. Moreover, she’ll also reunite with Apichatpong Weeresethakul on his next project, which is shrouded in secrecy.
First up, Almodóvar’s feature. In Página 12, Swinton confirmed “The Room Next Door” will start filming in NYC this coming March. The actress told the outlet that the film will “center on the friendship between three women, played by two British actresses and an American.” The movie will also be “in the language of Shakespeare.” It’s unclear if that’s a nod to iambic pentameter, a theatrical setting, or the Bard’s generous thematic outlook. But it’s worth noting that it’s Almodóvar making an English-speaking film for the first time. “I didn’t feel comfortable making a film in English, that’s I refused,” the director told La Presse about potentially making “Brokeback Mountain” years ago, “but now I feel capable of doing it.”
As for Weeresethakul’s upcoming project with Swinton, that’s more under wraps. At a Q&A at the Metrograph theater in NYC back in February, the director hinted he wanted his next project to film to be a smaller affair than 2021’s “Memoria.” “Now I want to go make a film in a different country,” he said. “This time, I want it to be more flexible. It’ll be a smaller budget, and probably with [my longtime actors] Jenjira [Pongpas] and Sakda [Kaewbuadee]. It’s the same old gang.”
Weeresethakul also stated that he wants to film in Thailand. “After Colombia [where he filmed “Memoria” with Swinton], I want to be closer to home, he continued. “And to be even more liberated, to let go of control and simply let things flow—as in, the freedom to venture into unknown terrain. I was thinking about the movie “Mysterious Object at Noon.” There was a sense of freedom in what we were doing in 1999. It was a genuine experiment.” Swinton revealed to Les Inrockuptibles that she would have to “stay eight months in Sri Lanka for the next Apichatpong film.” That’s an answer, but it’s not necessarily relevant to Weeresethakul’s next film.
Swinton will also appear in Joshua Oppenheimer’s debut fiction picture, “The End,” next year. The actress spoke to the French publication about the film. “This is his first fiction, since he has previously made documentaries, most notably “The Act of Killing” in 2012, which had a big impact on me,” Swinton explained. “”The End” depicts the story of a wealthy family who has spent the last twenty-five years living in an underground bunker. A natural disaster threw the latter into a post-apocalyptic world, and the father carries some of the blame because he was an oil billionaire who enjoyed fracking.” With luck, “The End” will make its festival debut in 2024.
So, as far as Swinton is concerned, the more things change, the more they stay the same, as she continues to work with directors with singular visions. Stay tuned for more info about her upcoming movies with Almodóvar and Weeresethakul.
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