Alpha, the long-awaited third feature from Raw and Titane director Julia Ducournau, has been picked up by NEON for North American distribution, Deadline have reported today.
While plot details are still firmly under wraps for the Palme d’Or winner’s next film, Deadline tease that it’s ‘genre-bending’, which usually means good news for us horror fiends.
Starring in Alpha are Golshifteh Farahani (Paterson) and Tahar Rahim (The Mauritanian), with production on the film set to start next fall. Producers are Jean des Forêts and Amelie Jacquis of Petit Film and Eric & Nicolas Altmayer of Mandarin & Compagnie, with Frakas Productions co-producing.
Deadline also let us know that Charades and FilmNation Entertainment are handling sales in the rest of the world during the Cannes Film Festival.
NEON – who previously teamed up with Ducournau to release her car-sex epic Titane stateside – are killing it in the horror game in 2024, starting the year off strong with the Sydney Sweeney-starring nun horror Immaculate, aceing the marketing for the Osgood Perkins’ upcoming nightmare Longlegs, as well as bringing Tilman Singer’s Cuckoo to screens on August 2.
Since wowing horror fans with 2016’s cannibal horror Raw, Ducournau has firmly established herself as a maestro of the body horror genre, even attracting the praise of the body horror big daddy himself, David Cronenberg.
And the feeling is very much mutual, as Ducournau expressed in an interview with SciFiNow:
David Cronenberg is definitely a big influence for me. It’s weird when we talk about influences, it’s not like a reference, I’m not referencing any of his movies in the film, but he’s a deep influence for me because the first time I saw his movies I felt very much alive and it left me a lot to think about. And the way he approaches the body is something I can really relate to, with this unyielding fatality that is almost scientific. So yeah, he is definitely an influence.
While we wish we could bring you more news on Alpha, sadly that’s all we have for now. Keep your eyes peeled for updates as soon as they come in…
