Leos Carax, Albert Serra, David Lowery, Alexander Payne, and others are planning their upcoming films.

      To begin with an enticing update, following last year's remarkable cine-memoir It's Not Me, Leos Carax is gearing up for a 2026 shoot for his first narrative feature since Annette. Although details about the project remain scarce, a casting announcement reveals that Léa Seydoux and Adam Driver will headline this Parisian film. Speaking of Driver, he is also slated to begin filming James Gray’s Paper Tigers soon, where Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller have replaced Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong, respectively.

      Last year, in a conversation with Albert Serra regarding his anticipated collaboration with Kristen Stewart for Out of This World, he expressed uncertainty about whether the casting would materialize, and it turns out that it was indeed too good to be true. Variety now indicates that Riley Keough will star in the film alongside F. Murray Abraham and Liza Yankovskaia. The story centers on “an American delegation traveling to Russia amidst the Ukrainian war, aiming to resolve an economic dispute.”

      While David Lowery is reportedly preparing for a 2025 festival premiere of his upcoming feature Mother Mary, he has already secured his next film. According to Deadline, Tilda Swinton will lead his adaptation of Ottessa Moshfegh’s eerie suspense novel Death in Her Hands. Written by Lowery, the film follows Vesta Gul (Swinton), a recent widow who finds an unsettling handwritten note in the woods near her home: “Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn’t me. Here is her dead body.” However, no body exists. Struggling with her husband’s death and armed only with a camera, her dog Charlie, and her vivid imagination, Vesta becomes fixated on uncovering Magda’s identity and fate. As her inner world begins to overshadow reality, the mystery surrounding Magda endangers Vesta’s grasp on her own life––until a captivating operatic climax reveals that Magda’s death may be what enables Vesta to truly live.

      Another director in post-production on a feature has identified their next project. László Nemes, known for Son of Saul, will likely premiere Orphan this year, and is now set to work on his English-language debut, Outer Dark, an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s 1968 novel, with Jacob Elordi and Lily-Rose Depp attached to star, as reported by Deadline. Scheduled to commence filming in 2026, this dark fairytale is set in Appalachia during the Great Depression and “tells the story of a young woman who becomes pregnant by her brother. The brother abandons the unnamed infant in the woods to die, misleading his sister into believing the newborn died of natural causes and needed to be buried. Upon discovering the truth, the sister sets out to find the baby. However, as both siblings traverse the countryside, three menacing strangers pursue them, leaving a trail of death and destruction.”

      Following one of his best films, The Holdovers, Alexander Payne will finally pursue his first European feature after a previous project fell through just before production started. Somewhere Out There will begin filming in Denmark early this year and has already added Renate Reinsve to its cast. Written by Erlend Loe and based on Åke Sandgren’s original concept, plot details remain undisclosed, as reported by Screen Daily. “Given Denmark’s rich cinematic heritage stretching back to the silent era, I feel honored to direct a Danish film, and I hope to do justice to Erlend Loe’s wonderful screenplay,” Payne stated.

      As we await further news on Carax’s next project, you can watch his recent conversation at the New York Film Festival with Annie Baker below.