Noomi Rapace Will Play Struggling Septuplets In What Happened To Monday?
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I’m not entirely sure when the world will actually reach a level that qualifies as “overpopulated,” but you can bet that society will be dramatically changed. (More people posting annoying memes on Facebook, for one.) Some cultures around the world have been limiting offspring for years, but these are practices that will almost certainly never become the norm in the U.S., barring ridiculously drastic circumstances. In steps science fiction and the upcoming film What Happened to Monday?, which will team Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters director Tommy Wirkola with Prometheus actress Noomi Rapace for a septuplet-filled extravaganza.
According to Deadline, the plot will follow Rapace in seven different roles, playing sisters who are forced to keep their existence hidden in a world where overpopulation has led to a one-child policy that outlaws siblings. There’s no description on either the time or location setting, nor what Rapace’s character’s role in life is. They also don’t explain how these sisters lived into their thirties without anyone realizing they exist, but I’m assuming that’ll play out in the film itself. I’d like to think they each take turns portraying the one sister whose public existence is acknowledged.
This will be the third feature script from Max Botkin, who wrote 2009’s awful family comedy Opposite Day and this year’s robo-family adventure Cody the Robosapien. Luckily, the What Happened to Monday? script landed on the Black List, so it should be worlds more intelligent than the just-mentioned films.
More so than the script, it seems like this film will rely more on Rapace’s ability to differentiate between her multiple roles, something that Tatiana Maslany excels at on BBC America’s clone drama Orphan Black. But apparently Wirkola is convinced of her abilities, as his original intention was to keep the main characters as male twins. However, he “was struck by the complexities of having an actor portray seven characters,” he said in a statement, “and immediately knew Noomi was the ideal actor — male or female — to bring them to life.”
Rapace broke out in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series a few years ago, and can be seen this year in Brian De Palma’s disappointing sexy thriller Passion and the action drama Dead Man Down. She’ll keep that genre streak going with Daniel Espinosa’s child murder thriller Child 44 and Michael R. Roskam’s crime thriller Animal Rescue. Hopefully all of these characters will make smarter decisions than her character Elizabeth Shaw in Prometheus.
This actually sounds like the first truly serious film the Norwegian Wirkola will make, after previously creating the spoof Kill Buljo and its sequel, as well as the Nazi zombie horror comedy Dead Snow and its sequel, currently in post-production.
No word on when this flick is going to go into production, but either me or one of my six brothers will let you guys know when we hear something else. In the meantime…
