1917‘s George MacKay and Yoga Hoser‘s Lily-Rose Depp (Johnny’s daughter) star in the Focus Features drama, Wolf. The official trailer introduces MacKay and Depp as people who believe they’re animals trapped in human bodies. In MacKay’s case he believes he’s a wolf while Depp thinks she’s a wildcat. They’re unlikely love story begins when they meet at a clinic for people who don’t fit into the real world.
The cast of the 2021 drama also includes Paddy Considine (The Outsider) and Eileen Walsh (Catastrophe). Nathalie Biancheri (Nocturnal) wrote and directed Wolf, with Jessie Fisk and Jane Doolan producing.
Filmmaker Biancheri turned to movement choreographer Terry Notary to help MacKay, Depp, and the other actors portraying humans with species dysphoria learn how to bring out an animal essence. In an interview with Focus Insider, Notary described his process.
“When I work with actors, it is about them discovering their inner blueprint. This blueprint solidifies their personality: how they think about who they are; how they see themselves in comparison to everything else. To see this in yourself, you have to get really real and grounded, like an animal,” explained Notary. “My experience in working with animals like apes and dogs as well as working with actors has shown me that to get into a character, one has to undo the idea of who they think they are. One needs to dissect the habits and tendencies shaped by social conditioning to see what is underneath them. With that awareness, you start to witness things inside you from an outside perspective.”
Focus Features has set a December 3, 2021 theatrical premiere date.
The Plot:
“Believing he is a wolf trapped in a human body, Jacob (MacKay) eats, sleeps, and lives like a wolf – much to the shock of his family. When he’s sent to a clinic, Jacob and his animal-bound peers are forced to undergo increasingly extreme forms of ‘curative’ therapies. However once he meets the mysterious Wildcat (Depp), and as their friendship blossoms into an undeniable infatuation, Jacob is faced with a challenge: will he renounce his true self for love.”