Magnus Von Horn’s “Sweat,” released in 2020, was a highly stylized eye-opener, tackling a social media influencer. Four years later, Von Horn surprised many by nabbing a competition slot at Cannes for “The Girl With the Needle,” which couldn’t be more different from “Sweat.” A black-and-white drama set after World War I, it replaced the digital intensity of his prior film with a stark, oppressive world of poverty and moral decay.
“The Girl With the Needle” garnered strong reviews and was nominated for the Oscar for Best International Feature Film, which has now led Von Horn to set up his follow-up. It’ll star a well-known American actor in what sounds like a potential Cannes return.
According to Variety, Jeremy Strong is set to star in von Horn’s “The Passenger,” based on the 1938 novel of the same name by Ulrich Alexander Boschwitz.
In “The Passenger,” businessman Otto Silbermann is compelled to leave Berlin in the wake of the November 1938 pogroms known as Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass. He attempts to escape with his fortune, moving from train to train as Germany turns into a trap and his sense of identity gradually unravels.
Strong has become one of the more interesting American actors working today, largely because of his ability to fully consume himself in roles—many of which are emotionally volatile, morally complicated figures—with a level of intensity that often feels borderline destabilizing.
That quality is evident across Strong’s best work, including Kendall Roy in “Succession,” Jerry Rubin in “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Dean Keith in “Molly’s Game,” and Roy Cohn in “The Apprentice.”
No start date has been announced for Von Horn’s “The Passenger,” but Strong doesn’t seem to have anything else shooting this year, and he will likely be busy marketing “The Social Reckoning” in October—so it could shoot later this year.