Olivia Wilde and Gael García Bernal are set to star in a new sexually charged thriller. Monkey Hill will star the duo as a wealthy couple who awaken forces beyond their ken. Deadline reports that the film will be directed by Sarah Adina Smith. Monkey Hill will star Wilde as an heiress who is accused of a white-collar crime and hides out in a luxury resort in an Indian holy city with her husband (García Bernal). They distract themselves with sexual dalliances and the pampering of the resort staff, but outside the resort’s walls, unrest is growing.
When the duo foolishly leave the resort’s confines, they have a momentous encounter with fate. The film is based on a short story by writer Paul Theroux, which was first published in The New Yorker in 2006. Several of Theroux‘s works have previously been adapted for the screen; the most famous is The Mosquito Coast, which was adapted into a Harrison Ford film in 1986 and an Apple TV+ series starring Justin Theroux (who is Paul‘s nephew) in 2021.
What Have Olivia Wilde and Gael García Bernal Been Working on Lately?
Wild is currently filming I Want Your Sex, a Gregg Araki erotic thriller; she will play a provocative artist who hires a young man (Cooper Hoffman) as her sexual muse. Wilde is also attached to direct a number of projects, including a big-screen adaptation of Rob Liefeld‘s angelic superheroine Avengelyne and the Christmas comedy Naughty, in which a divorced mother attempts to find Santa Claus to testify at her custody hearing. She is also attached to A24‘s TV adaptation of Jennifer Egan‘s books A Visit From the Goon Squad and The Candy House.
García Bernal can currently be seen alongside longtime friend and costar Diego Luna in La Máquina, Hulu‘s first-ever Spanish-language original series. He stars as an aging boxer who gets coaxed back into the ring. He is next set to star alongside Nicole Kidman in Holland, Michigan, a Prime Video thriller film.
Monkey Hill will be directed and written by Sarah Adina Smith, who recently directed episodes of Apple TV+‘s Lessons in Chemistry and the upcoming Game of Thrones spin-off A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight; her previous features include Birds of Paradise and The Drop. It will be produced by Mynette Louie for The Population and Neil Kopp, Vincent Savino, and Anish Savjani for filmscience. Smith, Jonako Donley, Feroze Alameer, Christine D’Souza Gelb, Kyle Jaeger, and Julia Nelson will executive produce.
Monkey Hill is currently in development, and will be shopped at the upcoming American Film Market; no release date has yet been announced.
via Collider