Maggie Gyllenhaal will be teaming up once again with Warner Bros. to adapt the Rachel Kushner novel “Creation Lake,” as the studio has optioned the rights to the novel for the filmmaker to develop as writer, director and producer.
The deal comes three months after Warner released Gyllenhaal’s “Bride of Frankenstein” reimagining “The Bride!” which was a bust at the box office.
“Creation Lake” follows a spy who is hired to disrupt a farming collective in France run by environmental activists. But along the way, she begins to question not just her mission but her direction in life in a tale that is described as a philosophical thriller.
Released in 2024, “Creation Lake” was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and longlisted for the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.
Gyllenhaal, who made her directorial debut with “The Lost Daughter,” which won Best Screenplay at the Venice Film Festival and earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, released “The Bride!” this past March. The film starred Jessie Buckley as the Bride of Frankenstein — known simply as The Bride in this version — who goes on the run with her monstrous companion in Mafia-era Chicago.
Like Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” and Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another,” “The Bride!” was championed by Warner Bros. film chiefs Pam Abdy and Michael De Luca as part of their vision for the studio as a bastion for auteur-driven films and taking bold swings on creative vision. But “The Bride!” exited theaters quickly amidst tepid reception, grossing $24 million worldwide on a budget of $90 million.
But it’s not unheard of for studios to announce further partnerships with a well-known filmmaker after a big misfire. In 2022, Paramount signed a first-look deal with Damien Chazelle shortly after his bombastic takedown of early Hollywood “Babylon” polarized critics and tanked at the box office. His next film, an untitled prison drama starring Daniel Craig, just finished filming this month.
Warner’s film chiefs, particularly Abdy, spoke highly of Gyllenhaal as a filmmaker both before and after the release of “The Bride!”, and this deal shows that they still want to be in business with the filmmaker for the long haul. De Luca and Abdy have continued to make auteur filmmaking a big part of Warner’s overall theatrical plans, announcing that the studio will release “Anora” director Sean Baker’s next film, “Ti Amo!” as the launch title for their new specialty label, Clockwork, at CinemaCon this past April.
Gyllenhaal is repped by WME and MGMT Entertainment.
