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It’s been five years since director Neil Jordan made the thriller Byzantium with Gemma Arterton, Saoirse Ronan and Jonny Lee Miller. It was one of the big premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2012, where it was picked up by IFC Films and released with far less fanfare the following year. Even so, Jordan is sticking with the thriller genre for his latest film, THE WIDOW, which he’s making with Sidney Kimmel Entertainment.

Word comes from Deadline that It Follows and Independence Day: Resurgence star Maika Monroe will be joining Chloe Grace Moretz and recent Oscar nominee Isabelle Huppert in the thriller, written by Ray Wright and produced by Lawrence Bender, James Flynn and Karen Richards.

Moretz plays Frances, a young woman who returns a lost purse to an elderly widow, played by Huppert, and they form a friendship until Frances learns the woman might in fact be dangerous.

Monroe will play Frances’ wealthy best friend who is trying to help her get adjusted to the city.

After the success of It Follows, Monroe was thought to become the next big “it girl” ala Brie Larson, but her role in Roland Emmerich’s Independence Day: Resurgence was relatively small and the movie didn’t do very well, so she needs to keep booking gigs like this with reputable filmmakers to maintain her status.

Monroe plays Liam Neeson’s daughter Joan in Peter Landesman’s Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House, which will be released by Sony Pictures Classics on September 29. That movie has yet to be announced to play at any of the fall festivals, although Telluride and the New York Film Festival seem the most likely.

Monroe is repped by WME and Management 360.

(Source: Deadline)

Edward Douglas | East Coast Editor