Oscar-Winning Director Embarks on Two Ambitious International Film Projects

While his third feature film, Árva (Orphan), has not even been released yet, László Nemes Jeles is already working on two new film projects – both of which are international collaborations in English and French. One of the director’s next films is titled Odakint a sötétség (Outer Dark) and is based on Cormac McCarthy’s 1968 novel of the same name, Magyar Nemzet reported.

The story is set in the American South during the Great Depression. The protagonist is a young woman, Rinthy Holme, who has an incestuous relationship with her brother and becomes pregnant. When she gives birth, her brother takes the baby away and leaves it in the woods, then lies to Rinthy and tells her that the baby is dead. However, the woman has her doubts and sets out to find her child. Meanwhile, her brother travels the countryside, while three mysterious, menacing figures follow in the siblings’ footsteps.

The main roles are played by Lily-Rose Depp (The Idol, Nosferatu) and Jacob Elordi (Saltburn, Euphoria). According to Nemes Jeles, it has long been his dream to bring McCarthy’s work to the screen:

Ever since I first read The Road, I have wanted to make a film out of it and find a cinematic language worthy of Cormac McCarthy’s evocative and cosmological work,”

László Nemes said in an earlier interview. He co-wrote the screenplay with Clara Royer, with whom he previously worked on Son of Saul. The project is being produced by London-based Good Chaos, with Mike Goodridge, who has produced films such as Triangle of Sadness and Left-handed Girl, which premiered at Cannes this year.

The other film project will be Nemes Jeles’ first French-language work and is set during World War II. It centers around Jean Moulin, an emblematic figure of the French Resistance who became a martyr as one of the key figures in the anti-Nazi movement during the German occupation. Gilles Lelouche and Lars Eidinger will play the leading roles in the as-yet-untitled historical drama.

With this move, László Nemes Jeles appears to be stepping outside the confines of Hungarian filmmaking and seeking stories that are personal, serious, and universal in scope, using new languages and international actors.

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