Tilda Swinton to Star in ‘Death in Her Hands’ for Filmmaker David Lowery

At the Berlin Film Festival in February, Tilda Swinton said she was looking forward to a long break from acting during which she would open a new chapter in her life in career beyond the big screen. But she’s not quite ready to bow out just yet.

Swinton is set to star in an adaptation of Otessa Moshfegh’s cult novel Death in Her Hands for David Lowery. The auteur will write and direct the film for See-Saw Films and a team of producers that includes Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Jeanie Igoe with executive producers Simon Gillis and Ann Phillips.

Published by Penguin Press on June 23, 2020, Death in Her Hands is described per today’s release as “an anarchic whodunnit, an otherworldly psychological thriller and a striking portrait of a woman striving to take control of her own story.” Swinton will portray Vesta Gul, a recently widowed woman who comes across a chilling handwritten note while walking in the woods near her home. It reads: “Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn’t me. Here is her dead body.” Unable to find a body or blood, Vesta becomes obsessed with finding the truth about Magda’s fate.

“I am a devoted fan of Ottessa Moshfegh, and the opportunity to translate Death In Her Hands to the big screen has been, in some ways, a subterfuge for getting to spend a great deal of time obsessing over her prose. But now the ruse is up,” Lowery explained in a statement. “The script begot by the novel will soon become a film, and I am suddenly aware more than ever that adapting this particular work represents a devious challenge — anyone who’s read the novel will understand why. But I’m ready for it, and am emboldened to have such wonderful collaborators at my side: the whole team at See-Saw, Jeanie, and of course, the incredible Tilda Swinton, who I know will illuminate Ottessa’s story in ways I could only dream of.”

The producers also had something to say about mounting this project with such high-caliber talent attached. “David Lowery is a master of crafting striking, atmospheric stories, and there’s no one better to bring Ottessa Moshfegh’s haunting and brilliant novel to the screen,” See-Saw founders Canning and Sherman said jointly of the filmmaker whose credits have found him exploring similar territory in A Ghost Story, The Old Man & The Gun and The Green Knight. “We can’t wait for audiences to step into the world he creates and be swept away by Vesta’s story, played by the incomparable, magnetic, and endlessly compelling Tilda Swinton.”

Cross City Films, See-Saw’s in-house sales arm, is teaming up with WME Independent to secure financing during the Cannes Film Festival.

Swinton is repped by Hamilton Hodell, CAA and Peikoff Mahan. Lowery is repped by WME and Victoria Cook at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz. Swinton is coming off The Room Next Door and The End while Lowery, who last directed Skeleton Key, will soon release his Anne Hathaway-starrer Mother Mary.

See-Saw Films, with offices in London and Sydney, is part of the Paris-based Mediawan Group. The Oscar-winning company’s credits include Slow Horses for Apple TV+, Heartstopper for Netflix, The Power Of The Dog, Lion, and best picture winner The King’s Speech. Other titles include Sweetpea, Apple Cider Vinegar, Grown Ups and Rivers of London.

Mosfegh’s other books include My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Eileen, Lapvona, Homesick for Another World, McGlue, Bettering Myself, The Weirdos, The Beach Boy and Disgust.