It’s been nearly three years since James Gray delivered Armageddon Time and five years since the underrated Ad Astra. And while he’s just beginning work on his upcoming action film Paper Tiger, Gray already knows what’s next and who’ll be his leading lady. According to THR, Gray will direct Kill Your Darlings, with Julia Roberts starring in the adaptation of Peter Swanson’s upcoming book.
Here’s a synopsis for Swanson’s novel: Thom and Wendy Graves have been married for over twenty-five years. They live in a beautiful Victorian on the north shore of Massachusetts. Wendy is a published poet and Thom teaches English literature at a nearby university. Their son, Jason, is all grown up. All is well…except that Wendy wants to murder her husband.
What happens next has everything to do with what happened before. The story of Wendy and Thom’s marriage is told in reverse, moving backward through time to witness key moments from the couple’s lives—their fiftieth birthday party, buying their home, Jason’s birth, the mysterious death of a work colleague—all painting a portrait of a marriage defined by a single terrible act they plotted together many years ago.
There’s no word who will star with Roberts in Kill Your Darlings, but it sounds like a plum gig to work alongside her and with Gray. Seprately, their films tend to be talked about late into the year during awards season, so we should expect the same now that they’re together.
Roberts last starred in the streaming hit apocalyptic thriller Leave the World Behind. Coming up next for her is Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt alongside Ayo Edibiri and Andrew Garfield, followed by a reunion with Esmail for thriller Panic Carefully.
