We have done literally nothing to deserve such an iconic collaboration, and yet we are blessed (and grateful) for it. Frances McDormand has signed on to star in Sarah Polley’s next directorial effort, and her first since the remarkable 2012 doc Stories We Tell. Per Variety, McDormand will produce and star in Women Talking, based on the bestselling novel by Miriam Toews and adapted for the screen by Polley herself. Published in 2018, Women Talking follows a group of women at a Mennonite colony in Bolivia as they come to the devastating realization that they’ve been systematically sexually assaulted by men in their community, and set out to protect themselves and their daughters from further trauma. McDormand will, presumably, absolutely end some of these men.
The news comes just as McDormand is earning massive praise for her role in Nomadland, the new drama from Chloe Zhao, director of The Rider and Marvel’s upcoming epic The Eternals. Zhao’s latest effort is currently scheduled for release on February 19, 2021. As for Polley, to call Women Talking highly anticipated might be an understatement; we’ve been waiting anxiously for the filmmaker to announce her next project following the one-two heart-punch of 2011’s Take This Waltz and 2012’s Stories We Tell, and eight years is like a century in pandy-time.