Anya Taylor-Joy is ready to play—but not as Beth Harmon.
Last month, The Queen's Gambit became Netflix's biggest scripted limited series to date after 62 million households tuned in within 28 days, shattering viewership records like no other. And that's for good reason. The seven-episode historical drama found Taylor-Joy—previously best known for The Witch and Split—at her very best, keeping us scintillated throughout every scene that revolved around, uh, the seemingly sleepy sport of chess.
Up next? Taylor-Joy is working with the show's co-creator, Scott Frank, for an adaptation that sounds even more exciting than their last project together. During an interview with The Ringer's The Watch podcast, Frank, an Oscar-nominated writer and director, revealed he's developing Vladimir Nabokov's 1931 novel Laughter in the Dark and that Taylor-Joy is set to star.
Though little is known about the project, he called it "a valentine to movies, I'm going to do it as a film noir and a movie within a movie. And it's a really nasty, wonderful thriller." The book sounds dark. It follows Albert Albinus, a middle-aged art critic who grows obsessed with 17-year-old aspiring actress Margot Peters. After Albert's wife learns of the affair and leaves him, Margot then relies on her ex lover Alex Rex to drain Albert of his assets and state of mind.
According to GoodReads, the following excerpt from the book really sums up its plot: "Once upon a time there lived in Berlin, Germany, a man called Albinus. He was rich, respectable, happy; one day he abandoned his wife for the sake of a youthful mistress; he loved; was not loved; and his life ended in disaster."
Uh, so how quickly can we tune in?