Dazed cover star and Oscar-winning actress Mikey Madison has landed her next film project, following her appearance in Sean Baker’s record-breaking comedy-drama Anora. Madison will star alongside Kirsten Dunst in Reptilia, a new film by Colombian-Ecuadorian director Alejandro Landes Echavarría.
Based on a script by Landes Echavarría and Duke Merriman, the film centres on a dental hygienist who is “seduced by a mysterious mermaid into the dark and wet underworld of Florida’s exotic animal trade”. It has not yet been announced who Madison or Dunst will be playing.
Echavarría is best known for directing Monos, a war drama about a group of teenage commandos tasked with watching over a hostage. The feature premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award, as well as Best Film at the 2019 BFI London Film Festival. It was also selected as Colombia’s official entry for Best International Feature at the 92nd Academy Awards.
In her Dazed cover story, Madison told Iana Murray: “I know who I am as an actor and an artist now. I know how I want to feel making a movie. I’ve been lucky to have every job that I’ve had, but I want to feel – even just a little bit – the way I felt making Sean’s movie on my next.”
For Madison, it’s not the money that matters most – as evidenced by her decision to turn down a role in Shawn Levy’s Star Wars film starring Ryan Gosling. What’s most important to her is falling in love with the character: “It’s an emotional job that I’m doing,” she told Dazed. “So I’m waiting for something that really speaks to me. That’s what I’ve been thinking about, and right now I’m still waiting for that.” It seems she may have now found it in Reptilia.
Reptilia is set to begin shooting this autumn.