Paul Mescal, Saoirse Ronan, and Lakeith Stanfield are set to star in Lion director Garth Davis’ forthcoming sci-fi thriller, Foe.

The film is an adaptation of Iain Reid’s 2018 novel of the same name, which is set in the near future when Earth is on the brink of destruction. The story follows Junior (played by Mescal) and Hen (Ronan), a young married couple living on a remote farm, whose lives are thrown into turmoil when a stranger named Terrance (Stanfield) knocks on their door one night.

Terrance gives them the news that Junior must travel to an experimental space station travelling Earth, and, for the two years that he’s gone, Hen will be joined by a biomechanical duplicate of her husband.

“I’ve been on the hunt to do something in sci-fi,” Davis told Deadline, “it was always on my bucket list. I read Foe and could not put it down. It’s incredibly suspenseful, very moving, and dealt with sci-fi in a most grounded way that spoke to where we are heading as a society, with a lot of the questions we all have explored in a profound way.”

“And the love story just broke my heart,” he continued, “this story of self-determination, fighting for the things that are most precious in our lives, and reminding audiences that this time we have here is precious and the way we treat each other is the way we need to be treating the planet.”

Speaking about his star-studded cast, Davis added: “What I love about Saoirse is, you see her on screen and she is just so unfiltered and alive. What she represents is precious, she’s an empath. She fights for the things we all should be fighting for… Paul Mescal, he is just a normal guy and you believe he’s married to her and that they come from the same part of the world, which they do in reality.”

“Then we have Terrance, who arrives in the middle of the night. It was really important to get him right. Lakeith is, for me, unbelievably exciting... Lakeith has this beautiful charm. You’d want to let him in the door and you’d want to know him, but as the story takes off, there is a mystery, a vulnerability. He embodies all that stuff in his eyes.”

The production for the film, which Davis co-wrote with Reid, will begin production in January. Kerry Kohansky-Roberts, Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, and Reid are on board as producers, while Samantha Lang and Reid will executive produce.

While you’re awaiting further news about Foe, you can read Dazed’s interview with Mescal and his Normal People co-star Daisy Edgar-Jones here. And look back at Ronan’s 2019 Dazed cover story here, in which she goes in conversation with her Little Women co-star Laura Dern.