EXCLUSIVE: Amid the theatrical release of Preparation for the Next Life, his new Amazon MGM drama from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Bing Liu, Fred Hechinger has signed on to star in A Long Winter, the latest film from four-time BAFTA nominee Andrew Haigh (All of Us Strangers).
While unconfirmed, we’re told that the film sees Louise, the alcoholic mother of Mike (Hechinger) and Tommy, take off after a quarrel with her husband Lester — walking with her dog to the home of her brother Frank, quite a few miles away. When a snowstorm blows up suddenly and socks in the entire area, Lester and Mike begin a search, which is soon expanded with the aid of local neighbors and local law enforcement.
The project has been gestating for some time; we first reached out on it nearly a year ago. Producer credits are still being worked out, but sources said Haigh will direct from his own script, as he has in the past.
Hechinger’s film Preparation for the Next Life, from Minding the Gap helmer Liu, released on September 5 and has garnered strong reviews. Breaking out with turns in prestige titles like Eighth Grade and The White Lotus, the actor is coming off of turns in the likes of Nickel Boys, Gladiator II, and Thelma. Upcoming, he’ll also be seen starring alongside Pamela Anderson, Jamie Dornan and Steve Coogan in Love Is Not the Answer, a comedy marking the feature directorial debut of actor Michael Cera. He is represented by WME, Brillstein, and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.
Haigh is coming off of All of Us Strangers, the queer romantic drama for Searchlight, starring Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal, which received six BAFTA nominations, including Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for Haigh, as well as four Gotham and three Independent Spirit Awards nominations. The LA Film Critics Association awarded Haigh with Best Screenplay for the film.
Haigh’s other past films include A24’s Lean on Pete; IFC’s Sundance Selects’ 45 Years, for which lead Charlotte Rampling earned an Academy Award nomination; and his breakout, Weekend. In television, he’s served as executive producer as well as lead writer-director of HBO’s Looking, starring Jonathan Groff and Murray Bartlett, also directing all five episodes of limited series The North Water for BBC & AMC. Currently adapting to direct the Walter Isaacson book Leonardo Da Vinci for Universal, he is repped by Anonymous Content and CAA.