What do you get when you cross the star of The Batman, the director of Smile, and one of the most shocking cult horror movies of the 80s? Well, we'll soon be finding out. In an unexpected but not at all unwelcome development, THR is reporting that Robert Pattinson is gearing up to produce a remake of Andrzej Żuławski's classic 1981 chiller Possession, with Parker Finn — who's currently in post-production on Smile 2 — set to write and direct.
For those unfamiliar with the original film, Żuławski's West Berlin-set psychological supernatural horror (try saying that twice as fast) stars Sam Neill as a spy who suspects his wife (Isabella Adjani) might be having an affair. Suffice it to say infidelity and marital woe winds up being the least of the couple's worries as their impending divorce catalyses a destructive cycle involving murder, doppelgangers, and, er, a full-on nightmare fuelling tentacled alien creature. On the one hand, it's a WTF-moment filled fever dream driven by truly wild performances from Neill and Adjani; on the other, it's a profoundly melancholic meditation on the dissolution of a marriage, made by a man whose own relationship was collapsing at the time.
Pitches for the remake, which has attracted the early attention of potential buyers including A24, Netflix, Paramount, Sony, and Warner Bros., have been very well received so far, with execs hyped by Possession's “batshit” and “out there” story. And whilst it's unconfirmed whether Pattinson will end up starring in the project or sticking to an exclusively producorial role, his experience with Robert Eggers making cosmic horror The Lighthouse combined with Finn's nous for psychological terror as demonstrated by Smile make for a tantalising (or should that be tentaclising?) prospect.
We'll bring you more on Possession when we get it, but before then we can look forward to seeing R-Pattz next in Bong Joon-Ho's Mickey 17, which finally releases in UK cinemas on 31 January, 2025. And if you haven't seen the original Possession yet, what are you waiting for? Go watch it! You may just about have recovered from *that* subway scene by the time the remake arrives.