The Yorgos Lanthimos film Poor Things is courting the Golden-Globe-winning actor Ramy Youssef. According to Deadline the Searchlight and Film4 feature is looking to fill out the cast which will include star Emma Stone. The role Youssef is in contention for is currently under wraps, and Wilem Dafoe is also in talks to join the cast.
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Poor Things is Yorgos Lanthimos follow up to The Favourite, in which the acclaimed director will be reteaming with Emma Stone. The story centers on Belle Baxter, a young woman who is brought back to life by an eccentric but genius scientist. It’s described as a Victorian love story about discovery and scientific daring.
First published in 1992, Poor Things is based on a Victorian-set novel by Alasdair Grey that was also inspired by Mary Shelly’s classic gothic novel Frankenstein. The script is being penned by frequent Lanthimos collaborator Tony McNamara (The Great)
Pick up a copy of the novel here!
The film’s official synopsis reads: “Ostensibly the memoirs of late-19th-century Glasgow physician Archibald McCandless, the narrative follows the bizarre life of oversexed, volatile Bella Baxter, an emancipated woman, and a female Frankenstein. Bella is not her real name; as Victorian Blessington, she drowned herself to escape her abusive husband, but a surgeon removed the brain from the fetus she was carrying and placed it in her skull, resuscitating her. The revived Bella has the mental age of a child. Engaged to marry McCandless, she chloroforms him and runs off with a shady lawyer who takes her on a whirlwind adventure, hopping from Alexandria to Odessa to a Parisian brothel. As her brain matures, Bella develops a social conscience, but her rescheduled nuptials to Archie are cut short when she is recognized as Victoria by her lawful husband, Gen. Sir Aubrey Blessington.”
RELATED: Poor Things: Stone & Lanthimos to Reunite for Reimagining of Frankenstein
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