A portion of the cast for director Brady Corbet’s monumental new project, an explicit Western, has just been unveiled.
Director Brady Corbet does not do things halfway. The actor known for Funny Games U.S., Melancholia, and Martha Marcy May Marlene has transitioned to directing since 2015 with The Childhood of a Leader. But it’s with The Brutalist in 2025 that he established himself as a major filmmaker for the general public. The three-hour-plus feature, co-written with Mona Fastvold (with whom he collaborates on nearly all of his projects), earned him the Silver Lion for Best Director at Venice, the Golden Globe for Best Director, and three Oscar nominations—Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.
In 2026, Brady Corbet also penned the screenplay for the highly acclaimed Testament of Ann Lee, this time directed by Mona Fastvold. But at the same time, Corbet already harbored new directorial ambitions, including a colossal Western that’s been anticipated as a brutal and potentially very explicit experience. The film is slated to run four hours and be shot in 65 mm, a combination that already piques interest, and it was without counting on the powerhouse cast just announced for the project.
Brady Corbet: Always Thinking Big
During a master class at the Cannes Film Festival, actress Cate Blanchett announced she would star in Corbet’s next film, currently titled The Origin of the World. Blanchett, the Australian two-time Oscar winner (for The Aviator in 2005 and Blue Jasmine in 2014), has recently endured some notable box-office misses, such as Borderlands in 2024 and The Insider, Steven Soderbergh’s latest, in 2025. Her most recent project, Father, Mother, Sister, Brother, was released in France on January 7, 2026 and was directed by Jim Jarmusch.
Just before Blanchett’s remarks, Michael Fassbender and Selena Gomez were also announced as part of the The Origin of the World ensemble. Blanchett and Fassbender had previously shared the screen in The Insider. Gomez, meanwhile, starred in Emilia Pérez in 2024 and currently features in the television series Only Murders in the Building and Waverly Place: The New Witches.
At this stage, what we know about The Origin of the World remains rather murky. The story at the heart of the plot is expected to focus especially on Northern California’s economy and span from the 19th century to the present day. Nevertheless, particular attention should be given to the 1970s. No release date has been announced yet for The Origin of the World, whose production is set to begin this summer.
The cast, meanwhile, is expected to be involved in multiple films and series in 2026, though none of their projects so far has an official French air date. This includes Hope, the science-fiction film that has set the Cannes crowd buzzing, in which Michael Fassbender also appears. The same goes for the next seasons of Waverly Place: The New Witches (Season 3) and Only Murders in the Building (Season 6) with Selena Gomez. Blanchett, for her part, will star in Alpha Gang, the upcoming film from the Zellner brothers.
