Leos Carax, Albert Serra, David Lowery, Alexander Payne & More Plan Next Features

Kicking things off with a small but enticing update, following last year’s incredible cine-memoir It’s Not Me, Leos Carax is finally prepping a 2026 shoot for his first narrative feature since Annette. While not much is known about the project, a casting call confirms Léa Seydoux and Adam Driver will star in the Paris-set feature. Speaking of Driver: he’s also set to soon shoot James Gray’s Paper Tigers, in which Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller stepped in for Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong, respectively.

Last year, when we spoke to Albert Serra about his planned collaboration with Kristen Stewart for Out of This World, he seemed hesitant if the casting may come together and, indeed, it proved too good to be true. Variety now reports Riley Keough will lead the film alongside F. Murray Abraham and Liza Yankovskaia. The film follows “an American delegation traveling to Russia in the midst of the Ukrainian war to try to find a solution to an economic dispute.”

While David Lowery is presumably prepping a 2025 festival premiere for his next feature Mother Mary, he’s already found his subsequent film. Tilda Swinton will star in his adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh’s haunting suspense novel Death in Her Hands, Deadline reports. Scripted by Lowery, it will follow a recent widow, Vesta Gul (Swinton), who comes across a chilling handwritten note in the woods near her home: “Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn’t me. Here is her dead body.” Except there is no body. No blood. Unmoored by the death of her husband and armed only with a camera, her dog Charlie, and her vivid imagination, Vesta becomes obsessed with uncovering Magda’s identity and fate. As her inner world begins to eclipse reality, the mystery of Magda threatens Vesta’s grip on her own life––until, in a spellbinding operatic climax, we realize that Magda’s death may finally allow Vesta to live.

Another filmmaker in post on a feature has found their follow-up. Son of Saul director László Nemes’ Orphan will likely premiere this year, and now he’s set his English-language debut with Outer Dark, an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s 1968 novel to which Jacob Elordi and Lily-Rose Depp are attached to star, Deadline reports. Set to shoot in 2026, the dark fairytale is set in Appalachia during the Great Depression and “tells of a young woman who bears her brother’s baby. The brother leaves the nameless infant in the woods to die, but tells his sister that the newborn died of natural causes and had to be buried. The sister discovers this lie and sets out to find the baby for herself. But as both brother and sister separately move through the countryside, three terrifying strangers are on their tails, wreaking death and destruction wherever they appear.”

Following up one of his finest films, The Holdovers, Alexander Payne will finally embark on his first European feature after his previous attempt fell apart just before the starting line. Somewhere Out There will shoot in Denmark early this year and has already added Renate Reinsve to its ensemble. Scripted by Erlend Loe and based on Åke Sandgren’s original idea, there’s no plot details yet, Screen Daily reports. “Given Denmark’s rich cinematic history stretching back to the silent era, I feel privileged to direct a Danish movie, and I hope I can serve Erlend Loe’s terrific screenplay,” said Payne.

While we await more details on Carax’s next feature, watch his recent New York Film Festival conversation with Annie Baker below.