Yorgos Lanthimos is examining the kinds of cruelty in his latest film “Kinds of Kindness.”
The feature, which was originally titled “AND”, marks Lanthimos’ eighth film and reunites the auteur with two-time Oscar winner Emma Stone following her recent “Poor Things” Best Actress win. Stone previously garnered her first Oscar after starring in Lanthimos’ “The Favourite.”
While the plot details for the Searchlight Pictures release remain elusive, we do know that “Kinds of Kindness” is an anthology film with three separate storylines that collide. Stone stars alongside her “Poor Things” co-stars Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley, plus Jesse Plemons, Hunter Schafer, Joe Alwyn, Hong Chau, and Mamoudou Athie.
“It’s great to be working again with Emma,” Lanthimos told The Guardian about the project. “It makes it so much easier to have someone there who trusts you so much, and who you trust so much.” The duo are next set to work together again on Lanthimos’ upcoming “Save the Green Planet,” a remake of the Korean film of the same name.
He also teased that the contemporary film takes place in the U.S., was filmed in New Orleans, and has “three different stories, with four or five actors who play one part in each story, so they all play three different parts.”
Lanthimos said, “It was almost like making three films, really. It’s all shot and we have started editing.”
Actor Dafoe admitted to letting co-star Stone slap him 20 times to get into character, and revealed to IndieWire’s Kate Erbland that “Kinds of Kindness” marks a return to Lanthimos’ earlier style of filmmaking.
“I think it’s safe to say it’s not at all like ‘Poor Things.’ It’s a little closer to his earlier work,” Dafoe said. “It’s a smaller film, it’s present day, it’s structured differently.”
Lanthimos reunited with frequent screenwriter collaborator Efthimis Filippou to pen the script for “Kinds of Kindness.” The duo previously co-wrote Lanthimos’ “Dogtooth,” “The Lobster,” “The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” and “Alps.” The film is produced by Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe of Element, along with Kasia Malipan and writer-director Lanthimos. This is the fifth project between Lanthimos, Guiney, and Lowe. Ollie Madden and Daniel Battsek are executive producing for Film4, which co-financed the project.
The limited release for “Kinds of Kindness” kicks off June 21 followed by a wide theatrical rollout. The initial release date seems to mark that the film could debut at Cannes 2024, which would be Lanthimos’ return to the festival since 2017’s “The Killing of a Sacred Deer.”
“Kinds of Kindness” premieres June 21 in theaters. Check out the teaser below.
