EXCLUSIVE: Olivia Cooke is set to star in the the Neon thriller Brides from Watcher director Chloe Okuno. Okuno will direct from a script she also wrote. The pic will be produced by Anthony Bregman and Stefanie Azpiazu through Likely Story. Neon will release the film theatrically.
Cooke steps in for Maika Monroe who had scheduling issues with her Universal film Reminders of Him. The film follows Sally Bishop (Cooke) and her husband, who travel to a remote Italian villa where the villa’s owner, a mysterious count, takes a peculiar interest in Sally.
As a filmmaker, Okuno’s feature debut was the psychological thriller Watcher, starring Monroe and Burn Gorman, which premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and went on to play several other festivals. Drawn to genre-based material that aims to excite and unsettle, her other works include writing and directing the award-winning horror short film Slut and the “Storm Drain” segment of the anthology series V/H/S/94, as well as directing episodes from Showtime’s Let the Right One In and the James Wan-produced series Teacup.
Best known for her star making roles in Ready Player One and Me, Earl and The Dying Girl, Cooke is coming off the second season of the hit Game of Thrones series House of the Dragon. She recently wrapped production on the Amazon series The Girlfriend opposite Robin Wright.
She is repped by CAA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and The Artists Partnership.
In Cannes this year, Neon earned its sixth consecutive Palme d’Or win with Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident, which the company acquired at the festival, and won a total of 6 awards across all films including Grand Prix for Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value. Also in Cannes, NEON debuted Julia Ducournau’s Alpha, Raoul Peck’s Orwell: 2+2=5, and Michael Angelo Covino’s Splitsville starring Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona which Neon also produced. The company acquired North American rights to Sirât from Oliver Laxe; The Secret Agent from acclaimed writer/director Kleber Mendonça Filho; and Ugo Bienvenu’s animated feature Arco with Natalie Portman.
Neon has built an impressive streak winning the coveted Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, with six consecutive wins, includingthis most recent year’s winner It Was Just an Accident, as well as Anora, Parasite, Anatomy of a Fall, Titane, and Triangle of Sadness. In 2024, NEON was named The Hollywood Reporter’s Independent Studio of the Year and received the Clio Award for Studio of the Year.
