Remember Benh Zeitlin? He was an instant superstar with Beasts of the Southern Wild fourteen years ago (!!!), earning a Best Picture Oscar nomination. It seemed to be the star of a career on a Terrence Malick-esque trajectory, but it took six years for his follow-up, Wendy, a loose take on Peter Pan, and critics killed it. I enjoyed it, though. Anyway, Zeitlin is back with a new movie, Hold On To Your Angels, that will reunite Hamnet duo Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal.
That’s one helluva way to make a comeback.
According to Deadline, Zeitlin will write and direct Hold On To Your Angels, a film that set on the edge of Louisiana that “follows a hell-bound outlaw (Mescal) and a ferocious shepherd of lost souls (Buckley) who fall in catastrophic love as their crumbling bayou paradise drags them under.”
Zeitlin said about the film, “Hold on to Your Angels is the most impossible love story I’ve ever witnessed — an outlaw romance for the end of America, set on the crumbling edge of South Louisiana. I’ve been dreaming of telling it since its hero, Pam Harper, walked into an audition for Beasts of the Southern Wild 17 years ago. It’s a love letter to an endangered way of life — and a rallying cry for empathy across a fractured planet.”
Harper played Bathtub resident Little Jo in Zeitlin’s acclaimed debut.
The film is being produced through Brad Pitt’s Plan B label, and will be presented to buyers at Cannes this month.
As a fan of Zeitlin’s blend of magical realism and naturalistic filmmaking style, I’m pumped to see him return, especially with a powerhouse duo like Buckley and Mescal. This has awards season written all over it.
