Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal reunite for Benh Zeitlin’s new film, “Hold on to Your Angels,” launching at Cannes.
Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley are gearing up for another on-screen collision of talent, and this time it’s in Benh Zeitlin’s next big-screen swing.
The duo. who previously drew attention together in “Hamnet. ” are set to star once again in Zeitlin’s new feature. “Hold on to Your Angels.” Misryoum reports the project will be his first feature in six years following “Wendy. ” with the story rooted in Louisiana and built around an outlaw romance with high emotional stakes.. The logline frames it as a collision between a “hell-bound outlaw” and a “ferocious shepherd of lost souls. ” set against a bayou landscape that seems to be slipping away.
Set for launch at the Cannes Marché du Film. the movie is also described as Zeitlin’s first feature concept that has been developing in his mind for years. reaching back to the making of “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” Zeitlin wrote the screenplay. and he points to Pam Harper. who played Little Jo in “Beasts. ” as the inspiration behind the film’s hero.
In other words, this reunion is more than casting news. It’s the kind of creative reset where an established on-screen chemistry meets a director’s long-nurtured vision, which is exactly what makes festival launches so worth watching.
Production is coming through Plan B, with Alex Coco’s Rapt Film also involved as a producer. On the business side, Misryoum notes The Veterans will handle international sales, while CAA Media Finance is managing domestic.
Zeitlin. Plan B. and Rapt Film have all framed the project as an epic love story with a fiercely specific sense of place.. In Misryoum’s coverage of the statements tied to the launch. the film is positioned as a blend of intense realism and mythic feeling. anchored in an “end of America” perspective and a call for empathy.
For Buckley, this comes at a busy moment: she’s in production on Alice Rohrwacher’s “Three Incestuous Sisters,” and Misryoum reports it’s her first post-Oscar role. Mescal, meanwhile, is tied up with the Beatles biopics currently in the works, where he plays Paul McCartney.
Meanwhile, with Cannes market week approaching, Misryoum will be tracking how “Hold on to Your Angels” lands with buyers and audiences—because when a project pairs a director with a distinctive world with two actors known for emotional precision, it tends to spark curiosity fast.
The Cannes market kicks off next week, and if the early descriptions are any indication, Zeitlin is aiming for a film that feels both intimate and enormous at once. That combination is often what turns festival buzz into a longer cultural conversation, long after the lights come up.