Mia Wasikowska (Crimson Peak) has signed on to star in the cult thriller Club Zero, which is scheduled to begin shooting in the United Kingdom and Austria in July, with director Jessica Hausner at the helm. Wasikowska will be playing “an unusual schoolteacher” who
takes a job at an elite school and forms a strong bond with five students — a relationship that eventually takes a dangerous turn.
Hausner wrote the screenplay with Geraldine Baggard, but she isn’t giving away exactly how things get dangerous in this story. Variety reports that she has previously said that the story is “a lot about eating, relating to eating disorders and eating behaviors.” When she was seeking funding for the project, it was described as being about “an intense cult of nutrition. The teacher acts as a leader, and the pupils are increasingly isolated under his influence from their parents and their environment.” So apparently the role Wasikowska will be playing was originally written as a man.
Club Zero has been financed with the support of the Austrian Film Institute, Vienna Film Fund, FISA (Film Industry Support Austria), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Eurimages, ARTE France Cinema and ZDF/Arte (Grand Accord), ORF (Film/Television Agreement), and BBC Film. The film is being produced by Coop99, Essential Filmproduktion, Coproduction Office U.K., and Parisienne de Production. Hausner is earning a producer credit alongside Bruno Wagner, Philippe Bober, Mike Goodridge, Johannes Schubert, and Martin Gschlacht.
Hausner has primarily directed dramas in her home country of Austria. She first ventured into horror with her English-language debut, the 2019 film Little Joe, which our own Chris Bumbray gave an 8/10 review (you can read that HERE) and described as “Invasion of the Body Snatchers for our overly medicated generation”.
Now we’ll have to wait and see just how thrilling the eating behaviors of the students and their unusual teacher are going to get in Club Zero.
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