As we wait and see whether she’ll land the Best Actress gong for her acclaimed turn in Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman at this month’s Oscars, Carey Mulligan has just found her next project. According to Deadline, who apparently have this on “good authority,” the British star has joined Adam Sandler in his latest movie for Netflix, The Spaceman. This isn’t one of the funnyman’s comedies, though, but is instead a high-concept sci-fi drama.
Based on the novel Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfar, the movie “follows an astronaut (Sandler) sent to the edge of the galaxy to collect mysterious space dust. He soon finds that his early life is falling to pieces, and he turns to the only voice who can help him try to put it back together. It just so happens to belong to a creature from the beginning of time, lurking in the shadows of the ship.” Mulligan is set to play the wife of Sandler’s astronaut character.
That sounds like a pretty trippy ride, then, and certainly a few rungs up the ladder in terms of cinematic ambition when compared to The Sandman’s last effort for Netflix, which was October’s Hubie Halloween. The Spaceman comes from Johan Renck, the director of the Emmy-winning Chernobyl, with an adapted script by Colby Day. Channing Tatum, meanwhile, is producing through his Free Association production label, so there’s quite a bit of talent involved.
Though Sandler’s working relationship with the streaming giant is much more notable, this is actually Mulligan’s fifth collaboration with Netflix. Her previous projects were 2017 Oscar-nominated drama Mudbound, 2018 BBC TV limited series Collateral, 2020’s period film The Dig and the upcoming musical biopic Maestro, in which she’ll star opposite Bradley Cooper. Adam Sandler, meanwhile, is next set to be seen in baseball comedy-drama Hustle, which – yes – is destined to stream on Netflix and will no doubt bring in a massive audience, as his efforts for the streamer always do.
Mulligan’s Promising Young Woman is nominated for five Oscars at the Academy Awards, with the ceremony due to unfold on April 25th.