Scottish auteur Lynne Ramsay is one of the most underappreciated female directors working today. She hit the indie scene in 1999 with her debut film Ratcatcher, about a boy living in Glasgow in the 1970s amid the city’s efforts to relocate poor citizens to modern housing.
Later, she became a household name after warning us about how scary Ezra Miller can be — years before his public meltdown — in 2011’s We Need To Talk About Kevin. Then, she put out one of the best films of 2017 with the Joaquin Phoenix-starring You Were Never Really Here, about a traumatized veteran who tracks down missing girls for a living.
Despite taking a long time between projects, it seems that her star continues to rise in the indie film community. Per Variety, Ramsay is currently attending the Sarajevo Film Festival, where she screened You Were Never Really Here and also received the Heart of Sarajevo award for her artistic achievements.
There, she discussed numerous upcoming projects, including a darkly comedic film starring Jennifer Lawrence called Die, My Love.
Ramsay acknowledged her particularly bleak body of work, and when asked if she would consider making an all-out comedy, she replied, “I am now.” Then, she charmingly course-corrected to clarify, “Well, I wouldn’t say it’s an all-out comedy. It’s called — Well, actually, it’s not comedy. It’s quite dark.”
She revealed that the project will star Jennifer Lawrence and explained a bit about the premise:
“It’s hardcore in some ways, but I hope I’ve made it funny. It’s about mental health… and the breakdown of a marriage. But it’s really f**ing funny. At least I think it’s funny… But I’m Glaswegian, so I’ve a really black sense of humor.”
According to The Playlist, Ramsay also revealed that her long-gestating project Polaris has already wrapped filming and will pair her once again with Joaquin Phoenix. All we know about Polaris is that the story centers on a photographer and that it’s her first original script since Ratcatcher.
Ramsay also teased a project called Stone Mattress, which apparently will star Julianne Moore and Sandra Oh. And perhaps somewhere down the line, she’ll get to make her dream project: a reimagining of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick — except set in freaking SPACE.
Let’s hope all of these projects come together more quickly than normal for Ramsay because while we definitely want to see Jennifer Lawrence’s non-comedy about a woman going nuts, we would absolutely die for space whales.