Sydney Sweeney has landed a new project, with the star set to produce and star in an adaptation of a short story from Reddit.
As per Deadline, the Euphoria and Madame Web star has been cast in I Pretended to Be a Missing Girl, which is based on Joe Cote’s mysterious and suspenseful short story.
Published on Reddit in 2021, the story sees a drifter impersonate a missing girl with the aim of robbing their family, only to realise she’s made a terrible mistake as she sets her plan into motion.
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In addition to leading the film, Sweeney will also produce the project as part of her production company Fifty-Fifty Films. Eric Roth, whose previous work includes Forrest Gump and Dune, is attached to pen the screenplay.
This isn’t the only instance of Hollywood greenlighting an adaptation of a story from a peculiar source, with Zola – a 2020 film starring Taylour Paige and Riley Keough – being based on a viral thread from X/Twitter.
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I Pretended to Be a Missing Girl will be the latest project that Sweeney will produce, with other upcoming films including The Housemaid and a currently untitled biopic in which she plays former professional boxer Christy Martin.
This comes after her producing work on Anyone But You and Immaculate, the latter of which had been a passion project for the actor. In an exclusive interview with Digital Spy, Sweeney explained how the horror film was influenced by her time in The Handmaid’s Tale.
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“Every year, in the most random moments, it [Immaculate] would pop into my mind,” she said. “One of the biggest turning points for me when I was like, 'I'm going to be determined to make this happen' was when I was filming The Handmaid's Tale.
“I saw Elisabeth Moss and how active she was on that show with directing and producing and just being so involved. Also, whenever I watched them set up the shot and how cinematic the entire show was, I started seeing Immaculate play in my mind.
“I actually had so much fun [producing] – I didn't want to leave. Every day I didn't want to wrap [shooting] at the end of the day. I would want to be the first person there to say ‘hi’ to all the crew and run around to make sure everything was running smoothly. I had such a great time.”
Reporter, Digital Spy George is a freelance writer who specialises in Movies and TV. After graduating with a degree in Film Studies and Journalism from De Montfort University, in which he analysed the early works of Richard Linklater for his dissertation, he wrote for several websites for GRV Media. His film tastes vary from blockbusters like Mission: Impossible and John Wick to international directors such as Paolo Sorrentino and Hirokazu Kore-eda, and has attended both the London and Berlin film festivals.
