Eddington director is making a mystery new A24 movie — and he's already found his lead
If there's one thing we've learned to expect from an Ari Aster movie it is, cliché as it may sound the unexpected. From lamppost decapitations and satanism to sunshine and folk horror (Hereditary and Midsommar), and from penis monster fuelled anxiety trips to pure COVID chaos (Beau Is Afraid and Eddington), no two Aster movies are the same. And for his next move, per Deadline's reporting, Aster is set to team up with none other than Scarlett Johansson on a secretive new A24 movie, simply titled Scapegoat.
Despite the fact ScarJo is one of the most booked and busy actors in Hollywood just now, with shooting only just wrapped on Mike Flanagan's The Exorcist retooling and The Batman Part II looming on her horizon this summer, the two-time Oscar nominee wasn't going to miss a chance to work with Ari Aster. According to Deadline's sources, after reading Aster's Scapegoat screenplay, Johansson was so intent on making the movie — whose plot, as you may expect, remains firmly under wraps — that the film's producers were willing to commit to filming later this year to accommodate her schedule and land Aster his leading lady.
Having starred in both The Phoenician Scheme and Jurassic World Dominion last year and released her directorial debut, Eleanor The Great, Scarlett Johansson could've been forgiven for pumping the breaks this year and taking a breather. Instead, she's doubling down on new projects. Along with Scapegoat, The Batman Part II, and The Exorcist, ScarJo has already got James Gray's Paper Tiger and Brad Bird's long-gestating Ray Gunn in the can (and, in Paper Tiger's case, in the Cannes — film festival that is.) Here's hoping Scapegoat works out well for Johansson and Aster. And hey, if it doesn't, we're sure they can find someone else to blame it on. Now if only there were a word for that...
