Olivia Cooke, Anya Taylor-Joy, Anton Yelchin Join Psychothriller ‘Thoroughbred’

Today, three up-and-coming talents have begun to reap the rightful rewards of recent, excellent work. Deadline has the exclusive that the psychological thriller Thoroughbred has cast three stars in leading roles, giving an intriguing premise the talent needed to realize its full potential. The Deadline item outlines the film as the story of “a volatile friendship between two suburban teenage girls who discover that a murder might solve both of their problems,” which sounds almost exactly like Peter Jackson’s stellar 1994 film Heavenly Creatures (featuring Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey in their screen debuts!). When the news of the movie first broke earlier this month on the Tracking Board, the plot synopsis looked a bit different:

The story follows Christine Wyckland, a guidance counselor at a top-tier prep school who has decided to spend some time at home in order to recover from a panic attack. Her daughter is an amateur equestrian that has become jaded to the sport and has been blacklisted from her peers after injuring her horse. One of Christine’s students starts showing up to school with strange marks on his skin and in the woods around their house it seems as though menacing eyes are watching their suburban haven.

Discrepancies notwithstanding, the fact of the matter is that Anya Taylor-Joy, Anton Yelchin, and Olivia Cooke have all joined the cast of playwright Corey Finley’s directorial debut.

Taylor-Joy recently wowed audiences as steadfast, steely Thomasin in pre-colonial horrorshow The Witch, displaying maturity beyond her years and paving a path for herself to many more challenging roles. Her opposite and presumable co-conspirator Olivia Cooke regularly entertains on the Bates Motel TV series and starred in the polarizing Me and Earl and the Dying Girl last summer as the last noun in the title. She’s poised for an even bigger bump in popularity, too, with a role in Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Ready Player One scheduled for 2018. Anton Yelchin has been at this the longest, having established himself with memorable roles in Charlie Bartlett as well as the Star Trek reboot franchise. More recently, however, he gave a performance of fear and composure in Jeremy Saulnier’s merciless thriller Green Room, which also bodes well for his performances to come. It’s a strong trio of actors, hopefully foreshadowing a strong movie to follow them.