Jennifer Lawrence to Star in Zach Cregger’s ‘The Flood’

Zach Cregger's next film, "The Flood," has found its lead actress, and it's none other than Jennifer Lawrence.

Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment is producing, alongside Roy Lee and Miri Yoon of Vertigo Entertainment. Warner Bros. and New Line have it dated for August 11, 2028 — a long wait, but "The Flood" is coming, and it should start filming in Europe early next year. Apparently, Cregger wrote "The Flood" in five days of frenzied writing while trying to land something for Spielberg.

I got a copy of the script a few weeks ago. I'll try to give a general detailing of the plot, which is still under wraps, without giving away too much.

Lawrence, in all likelihood, has been cast as Captain Elena Voss, who leads the crew of the deep-space survey ship Spiritus Mundi. Seven years into their expedition, they pick up a repeating artificial signal coming from a storm-wracked planet, and what they find in its upper atmosphere is a massive alien structure that bends time around itself. After a close call approaching it, the ship begins filling with duplicates of the crew — iterations stacked on top of one another from overlapping loops, most of them far more desperate and violent than the originals.

When recently asked what inspired "The Flood," Cregger went where you'd expect:

I'm not comparing it to “2001,” because I think “2001” is a true masterpiece in every sense of the word, there's a bizarreness to that movie that's really undeniable, and it's also a horror movie. I think “2001” is a really thrilling horror movie about human nature, and obviously about artificial intelligence, but it asks big questions. And I think, in that way, there's some similarity with 'Flood’

Cregger is coming off the 1-2-3 punch of "Barbarian," "Weapons," and "Resident Evil," the last of which has crossed $200 million worldwide. To say that "The Flood" will be his biggest swing yet is an understatement — it will certainly be his priciest film.

Lawrence, an Oscar winner for "Silver Linings Playbook," stars opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Scorsese's "What Happens at Night." Her recent credits include "Don't Look Up" (2021), "Causeway" (2022), "No Hard Feelings" (2023) and "Die My Love" (2025), which earned her a Golden Globe nomination. She's also supposed to have a cameo in the upcoming "Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping."

I absolutely should note that "The Flood" didn't start life at Warner Bros. The project was originally set up at Netflix, and it was Cregger's insistence on a proper theatrical release that moved it — when the streamer wouldn't guarantee one, he walked, and Warner Bros/New Line picked it up.