Warner Bros. is reteaming with Maggie Gyllenhaal, the actress-filmmaker behind the studio’s high-profile disappointment earlier this year, The Bride!
The studio has optioned the Rachel Kushner novel Creation Lake for Gyllenhaal to write and develop as a directing vehicle. Gyllenhaal would also produce.
The novel tells of a spy who disrupts a farming collective in France only to develop second thoughts about her life. It is described as tackling ideas of activism, paranoia, and nihilism in the form of a philosophical thriller.
One of the more acclaimed books of 2024, the novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and longlisted for the National Book Award and the Pen Faulkner Award for fiction. It was also named one of the top books of that year by The New York Times, The Atlantic, Kirkus Reviews, among other outlets.
The return of Gyllenhaal into the Warners fold is a testament in the faith the studio, in particular movie co-chief Pam Abdy, has in the budding filmmaker.
Bride! Was a big swing by the studio and a big bet on Gyllenhaal. She had only directed intimate drama and festival player The Lost Daughter before being handed the chair to tackle an ambitious, 1930s-set retelling of The Bride of Frankenstein. Her vision attracted Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Annette Bening, Penelope Cruz (husband Peter Sarsgaard and brother Jake Gyllenhaal pitched in, too).
But the movie, released in March this year after a deep post-production process, flopped, grossing $24 million worldwide on a budget of $90 million.
Still, Warners believes in Gyllenhaal as a filmmaker enough to try again.
