Yorgos Lanthimos is fastly becoming a hot name in international cinema, and one should seek no further proof than the latest name that is attached to his next project: Nicole Kidman. The Australian movie star is reported to be joining the cast of ‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer’, Lanthimos’ new film which is getting into production in August. Kidman will join another a-list Hollywood star, Colin Farrell, who is continuing his collaboration with Lanthimos, after the success of ‘The Lobster’, which won the Jury Prize at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and was distributed around the world, being met with critical acclaim but also commercial success; in the US alone, the dark comedy made has made $5.8 million in just over a month – not bad for a quirky arthouse film. 

Co-written by Lanthimos and his regular collaborator, Efthimis Fillipou, ‘The Killing of a Sacred Deer’ is promoted as a psychological revenge thriller with supernatural overtones, altough anyone familiar with Lanthimos’ filmography — which, in addition to his English-language debut “The Lobster,” include “Alps” and the Oscar-nominated “Dogtooth” — knows that there’s more to his films than what a 25-word summary can do justice. According to ‘The Hollywood Reporter’, Farrell is playing a successful surgeon who attempts to integrate a teenager into his family (Kidman is set to play hiw wife), but when the teen’s actions grow increasingly sinister, he is forced to make “an unthinkable sacrifice”. The setting seems appropriate for one of Lanthimos’ signature dark ventures; the director is also working on aa historical drama called “The Favourite” with Emma Stone, Olivia Colman and Rachel Weisz (the latter two having also appeared in “The Lobster”) that delves into the reign of British monarch Queen Anne.