After the critical acclaim of this year’s “I Saw the TV Glow,” Jane Schoenbrun’s next film will again be tackling the horrors of media and culture. Hell, even Martin Scorsese heaped praise on it, calling ‘TV Glow’ “emotionally and psychologically powerful.”
At a ‘TV Glow’ Q&A, Schoenbrun says the film is called “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” describing it as “Portrait of a Lady on Fire set in a Friday the 13th sequel.” Jesus, what a description.
Schoenbrun went on to state that “Trans film isn’t going anywhere—nor is it just starting.”
Schoenbrun had recently told The New Yorker that the story would tackle “a queer filmmaker hired to direct a new installment of a long-running slasher franchise. The director fixates on the prospect of casting the ‘final girl’ from the original movie, and the two women descend into a frenzy of psychosexual mania.”
In another interview, this one with Filmmaker Magazine:
My next movie is all about sex––essentially a movie about learning to enjoy sex after transition. Pre-transition, it wasn’t that I was asexual––I had plenty of desire––but having good sex in the wrong body was impossible. What was available was full dissociation, which is obviously a theme in the first two films.
The film would “both honor and critique” the “gender deviance” connected with the serial killer genre, exploring how films “created and codified an idea of transness as monstrous.” The goal is to shoot this one in early 2025.
“I Saw the TV Glow” grossed $4M at the domestic box office — its budget was said to be around $5M. The film was showered with rave reviews ever since its premiere at Sundance in January. I was mixed on it, but about to give it a rewatch tonight before I publish my best of 2024 list.
Even after just two films, Schoenbrun’s cinematic obsession is quite clear: young people in the digital age. After “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair,” Schoenbrun yet again tackled media consumption overload, and the moving images that possess young minds in ‘TV Glow.’ It sounds like this next film will have similar themes.
Now this is a package. Armando Iannucci will write and direct a new film headed to the market, with James McAvoy, Alicia Vikander and Taron Egerton set to star. None of the three has worked with Iannucci before.