Mikey Madison, fresh off her star-making role in Sean Baker’s Anora—which earned her the Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role—is set to star in Reptilia, the latest feature from acclaimed filmmaker Alejandro Landes Echavarría (Monos). Academy Award-nominated Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog) will co-star in the film, based on a script written by Landes Echavarría and Duke Merriman.
The film will be produced by PASTEL (Moonlight, Aftersun), Imperative Entertainment (Killers of the Flower Moon, Triangle of Sadness, and the upcoming A Big Bold Beautiful Journey), and AF Films, along with Landes Echavarría under his A STELA CINE banner. Black Bear is providing financing.
UTA Independent Film Group and 30WEST will co-handle U.S. distribution rights, with Charades (Aftersun, Flow, Sorry, Baby) introducing the film to international buyers at the Cannes Market. Principal photography is set to begin in Fall 2025.
Reptilia follows a dental hygienist who becomes seduced by a mysterious mermaid and is drawn into the dark and wet underworld of Florida’s exotic animal trade.
Landes Echavarría, known for his direction of Monos, which premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award, also won Best Film at the 2019 BFI London Film Festival.
Monos was selected as Colombia’s official entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards. His narrative debut, Porfirio, premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2011, and his first feature, the documentary Cocalero, debuted at Sundance in 2007. Landes Echavarría is an alum of the Sundance Writers and Directors Labs and the Cannes Cinéfondation.
Madison’s breakout performance in Anora earned her five Academy Awards, including Best Actress, as well as a BAFTA for Best Leading Actress and the Independent Spirit Award for Best Lead Performance. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe, SAG Award, and Critics’ Choice Award, and won the Palm Springs International Film Festival Breakthrough Performance Award and the Santa Barbara International Film Festival Virtuoso Award.
Madison starred in Scream 5 and had a memorable role in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, where she shared the screen with Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Margot Robbie. Additionally, Madison is known for her role in FX’s Better Things.
Dunst, a Cannes Best Actress winner for Melancholia, is renowned for her roles in The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette, Spider-Man, and The Power of the Dog, which earned her Academy Award, Golden Globe, SAG, and Critics’ Choice nominations. Dunst will next star in Derek Cianfrance’s Roofman opposite Channing Tatum and in Ruben Östlund’s upcoming A24 feature The Entertainment System Is Down.
She is also known for her role in the second installment of the critically acclaimed FX series Fargo, where she won a Critics’ Choice Award and received Golden Globe and Emmy Award nominations. Dunst also starred in Showtime’s dark comedy On Becoming A God In Central Florida, produced by Grant Heslov and George Clooney.
Landes Echavarría is represented by UTA and Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Feldman, Rogal, Shikora & Clark. Dunst is represented by UTA, Entertainment 360, and Hansen Jacobson. Madison is represented by UTA and Authentic Talent & Literary Management.