Director Nia DaCosta launched her career with the small (and excellent) drama Little Woods, establishing a relationship with star Tessa Thompson that continued into her biggest film, The Marvels. Now DaCosta reunites with Thompson and returns to the realm of intimate dramas with Hedda, an adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s masterpiece stage play, Hedda Gabler.
In Hedda, Thompson plays the title character, a woman bored with her marriage and her life who finds herself torn between a past love and a shot at freedom.
DaCosta began writing the screenplay a few years ago, before her big studio efforts got in the way. She recently told a festival audience… “I called my team, and I said that I need to make ‘Hedda,’”. I had written it years ago, and I said that I really needed to go back to that because this isn’t fulfilling in the way I need it to be.”
SYNOPSIS: From writer/director Nia DaCosta comes a provocative, modern reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s classic play. HEDDA (Tessa Thompson) finds herself torn between the lingering ache of a past love and the quiet suffocation of her present life. Over the course of one charged night, long-repressed desires and hidden tensions erupt—pulling her and everyone around her into a spiral of manipulation, passion, and betrayal.
Thompson is surrounded by an impressive cast that includes Imogen Poots, Tom Bateman, Nicholas Pinnock, Nina Hoss, Finbar Lynch, Mirren Mack, Jamael Westman, Saffron Hocking, and Kathryn Hunter.
Hedda opens in theaters on October 22nd from Amazon MGM Studios, followed by Prime Video on October 29th. It will also be part of the Toronto International Film Festival lineup. After that, DaCosta returns to horror with 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.
