EXCLUSIVE: Sarah Catherine Hook, the actress who broke out with her role in the Thailand-set third season of HBO’s The White Lotus, is set to star in Crush, the snake-themed thriller from 20th Century Studios.
This marks Hook’s first big starring role in a feature. Sources said Crush is now set to enter production in Australia this fall.
Official plot details are being kept under wraps. But when we scooped the project last October, we were told that it’s a propulsive, ticking-clock survival thriller about a woman hiking alone in the Everglades who wakes to find herself trapped in the crushing coils of a massive python, fighting to stay alive as every breath brings her closer to death. Inspired by true events, the film is said to unfold primarily in real time.
Overlord‘s Julius Avery is set to direct from a script by John Fischer. As you might recall, the project has an interesting origin story, with Fischer writing Crush as a spec under a pseudonym while working as an EVP at Smile producer Temple Hill Entertainment. Fischer was unsure whether anyone would respond to the material, but when it gained heat after posting to the Black List, he approached his bosses to make them aware of the script and ask if they might want to produce it.
Indeed, they did: Temple Hill is set to produce alongside Scott Glassgold for 12:01 Films, having set up the project at 20th following a heated bidding war. J.R. Young is overseeing it for 20th.
Hook played Piper Ratliff, a college senior who must choose between walking a spiritual path and indulging in her privileged lifestyle, in The White Lotus Season 3. She shared the screen there with Parker Posey — who as her mother Victoria, delivered the now-iconic line, “Piper, no!” — along with Jason Isaacs as her father, and Patrick Schwarzenegger and Sam Nivola as her brothers.
More recently, Hook has been seen in Netflix’s People We Meet on Vacation, an adaptation of the bestselling rom-com novel from Emily Henry, which was the streamer’s seventh most-watched film globally during the first half of this year, per their What We Watched report, with 77.7M views.
Up next, the actress will be seen starring opposite Rhys Ifans and Lily Rabe in Lindsey Ryan’s indie Capsized, which is coming off its premiere at the Edinburgh Film Festival. She is repped by Gersh, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, and attorney Danny Passman.
