While The Father is still in the awards conversation as a two-time BAFTA winner and currently up for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, writer/director Florian Zeller has wasted no time on capitalizing on his directorial debut’s for an intriguing follow up, The Son.
As first reported by The Hollywood Reporter, the film is set to star Hugh Jackman and Academy Award winner Laura Dern. Like The Father, The Son is adapted by Zeller and Christopher Hampton from one of Zeller’s own stage plays, part of a trilogy of family-centric dramas that also includes The Mother.
While The Father explored the devastating emotional impact of dementia, The Son will focus its lens on adolescent depression. The story follows,
Peter (Jackman) as his busy life with new partner Emma and their baby is thrown into disarray when his ex-wife Kate (Dern) turns up with their troubled and angry teenage son, Nicholas.
Peter strives to be a better father, searching to help his son with intimate and instinctive moments of family happiness — to solve, with understanding, what Nicholas is going through. But the weight of Nicholas’ condition sets the family on a dangerous course, and they must do everything they can to maintain the bonds that hold them together.
Zeller commented on the upcoming film stating,
“The Son is a deeply human story which, I believe, connects us all; I hope audiences will be profoundly moved by this family’s journey,” “Both Hugh and Laura naturally convey great warmth, compassion, and vulnerability… inviting our audience to embrace and feel every moment. The story is set in a vibrant and very much alive New York, an important character. The movie should make us call family and friends to tell them that they are wholly loved and not alone.”
In almost identical trajectory to its predecessor, The Son originally debuted on stage in Paris (as Le Fils) in 2018 before moving to London’s West End in 2019 to rave reviews.
