Few films have as intriguing a plot setup as Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou’s latest, The Lobster. For all its strange setting, the writer and director team has attracted a stellar cast so far, and as the cameras start rolling, they’re adding John C. Reilly, Ashley Jensen, Michael Smiley and Jessica Barden to the line-up{
If you haven’t been following the various casting stories, Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Olivia Colman, Ariane Labed, Angeliki Papoulia, Ben Whishaw and Lea Seydoux are already aboard the film, which is set in a weird future world.
In this bizarre universe, single people are against the law. Those who have yet to pair up after a certain age are arrested and transferred to a facility called the Hotel. There, they are obliged to find a matching mate in 45 days. If they fail, they are transformed into an animal of their choosing and released into the Woods. A desperate man escapes to the Woods where the Loners live and falls in love, although it is against the rules.
Lanthimos and Filippou are the duo behind Dogtooth and Alps, so it’s not hard to see why actors might want to work on the film despite the seemingly odd setting. The film is shooting now in Ireland and will hopefully emerge later this year.