Zach Cregger hasn’t slowed down since Barbarian’s 2022 release. The comedian and actor turned filmmaker has had a fast turnaround time for his features, with the director moving from his horror debut into a self-proclaimed trilogy of films that he wrote, all part of a “creative” cycle that, while not directly connected, was developed around the same time. The first was his original horror movie Weapons, and the second was his video game adaptation, Resident Evil, a box-office hit and critical success. Now, a new actor has signed on to his next movie, which is being described as his most intense movie yet.
The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Jennifer Lawrence will star in Cregger’s sci-fi thriller The Flood. New Line Cinema, a Warner Bros. subsidiary, picked up the project. Originally, Netflix planned to produce and distribute The Flood before the streaming company dropped it, with reports speculating that it was because it lacked a theatrical release plan. Cregger wrote and directed the movie and will produce the thriller, which is slated for release on August 11, 2028. The casting news comes just as it was also reported that production on The Flood is set to begin in Europe at the beginning of 2027.
Cregger’s next film will continue his tradition of making movies based on his original ideas. Resident Evil is the outlier in his filmography, an adaptation of the Capcom video game of the same name. Amblin Entertainment will co-produce The Flood with the usual suspects behind the director’s previous films, including Roy Lee and Miri Yoon of Vertigo Entertainment. Interestingly, THR notes that Lawrence’s casting is a big win for the production, as the actor is described as “quite choosy” in the report. Lawrence most recently starred in the drama Die My Love, released by Mubi.
The Hunger Games alum will next appear in What Happens at Night, the latest movie from Martin Scorsese, which also stars Leonardo DiCaprio. Now that The Flood has its leading actor, it’s only a matter of time before Cregger and his production team round out the rest of the cast. The filmmaker has seemed particularly excited about this project, calling it a mesh of sci-fi classics like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien. With the former being a high-concept existential sci-fi think piece and the latter being a horror movie, The Flood is sure to be Cregger’s most ambitious movie yet. Moreover, both films helped redefine the sci-fi genre.
It will be interesting to see how The Flood plays with narrative structure, as Cregger teased that the film will follow an unconventional structure. His previous movies, Barbarian and Weapons, both used non-linear elements to drive up the suspense and inevitable scares, so his next film might do the same. Cregger has also been known to draw elevated performances from actors in his productions; Amy Madigan’s Supporting Actress Oscar win for Weapons speaks for itself. More casting developments are sure to follow Lawrence’s addition to the production, which has now transformed Cregger’s The Flood into a prestige horror picture.
