Toni Collette will blast into outer space for her next film, a sci-fi thriller about an ill-fated mission to Mars called Stowaway.
Variety reports the About a Boy and Little Miss Sunshine star will play the commander of a ship on its way to the red planet, when an unexpected stowaway does major damage to the life support systems.
It means she’ll be pitted against Anna Kendrick, whose starring role as the crew’s feisty medical researcher was confirmed by the Hollywood Reporter in October. According to the film’s synopsis, the two women will battle it out over how best to survive, as the ship’s resources rapidly dwindle. And while Toni’s character uses “clinical logic” to come to a grim conclusion, Anna’s emerges as the “only dissenting voice.”
It matches what we know of the two actresses so far, with Anna’s attitude and Pitch Perfect pluckiness being an interesting foil for the chilly authority Toni recently demonstrated in Hereditary.
The film will be directed by Joe Penna, a former YouTube star who co-wrote the script with Ryan Morrison. You may not have heard of them yet, but this pair of filmmakers is about to break out with Arctic, a survival film starring Mads Mikkelsen as a man stranded after an airplane crash.
There’s no word yet as to when the film will start filming or be released, but with Arctic premiering at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, it’s not unreasonable to think this one might be ready for next year’s festival in May 2020.
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