Receiving anything in a will is often bittersweet, depending on your relationship with the deceased. While it’s nice to carry a memory, trinket, or property with you into the future, some gifts come with negative energy, cursing you into a frightful situation from which there is no escape. NEON, the award-winning studio behind some of the most daring and celebrated films of the last nine years, announced today it has acquired U.S. rights to King Snake, from Loving and Mud filmmaker Jeff Nichols.
The film, starring Margaret Qualley (The Substance), Michael Shannon (Take Shelter), and Drew Starkey (Queer), will be produced by Nichols and his Tri-State Pictures partners Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Sarah Green, in association with Range Media Partners. FilmNation’s Stacey Snider and Glen Basner executive produce.
Billed as a Southern Gothic horror tale, King Snake “follows a young couple (Qualley and Starkey) who inherit an Arkansas farm where they face real-world problems and supernatural forces, battling physical and metaphysical demons while confronting the property’s dark legacy.”
Speaking as someone who once lived in a haunted house (The Long Island Harbor Beach House), I can tell you that residing on land that’s seemingly twisted into something unnatural is a bummer of a time. When bizarre things begin to happen that you can’t explain, it makes you question your sanity. Trying to explain it to anyone is impossible. They just look at you like you’re crazy, a liar, or starved for attention. Never mind that you have irrefutable evidence, or the conviction in your eyes and voice is undeniable. No one cares. They nod, roll their eyes when you’re not looking, and label you as a fool. Whatever. I was there, man.
I can’t imagine inheriting a farm only to discover its soil is crawling with supernatural forces. Taking ownership of a place like that is supposed to be an opportunity to start over, not become haunted by malevolent forces. What a bum wrap.
The news comes just ahead of Cannes, where NEON will arrive with an ambitious slate. NEON’s films in competition include James Gray’s Paper Tiger, Arthur Harari’s The Unknown, Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden, Hirokazu Koreeda’s Sheep in the Box, and Na Hong-Jin’s Hope. In Directors’ Fortnight: Arie Esiri & Chuko Esiri’s Clarissa, a modern reimagining of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, and David Greaves’ Sundance sensation Once Upon a Time in Harlem. Rounding out the slate, Nicolas Winding Refn’s Her Private Hell screens out of competition.