Is The Favourite director Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things looking to take over from Knives Out 2 as the film that drops its casting announcements one day at a time? Well, not quite - despite word of Mark Ruffalo yesterday – but Jerrod Carmichael is the latest addition.
The film has Tony McNamara adapting Alasdair Grey's novel, a riff on Frankenstein following Victoria Blessington (Emma Stone), who drowns herself in an attempt to escape her abusive husband. A surgeon (Willem Dafoe) resuscitates her using the brain of her baby, and the revived woman – now called Bella – has the mental faculties of a child. She grows up to become engaged to a Glasgow doctor, but leaves him for a shady lawyer, taking off for adventures around Europe. As her brain matures, she develops more of a conscience, but her progress is threatened when her original spouse recognizes her.
Ramy Youssef – who works with Carmichael on his series Ramy – is playing a character named Max McCandless, with Ruffalo as Duncan Wedderburn and Carmichael as Harry Astley. The film will shoot this year.