It’s a cinematic match made in literary heaven: John Boyega has just been cast as the lead in The Freshening, a movie from Birds of Prey director Cathy Yan that’s based on a short story by Rachel Khong (Goodbye, Vitamin).
Actress Ali Wong (Paper Girls) and director Adam McKay (Don’t Look Up) are among the producers on the film, which Deadline describes as a sci-fi romance.
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“The Freshening” was published by The Paris Review in 2018, and Yan has been attached to write and direct the movie since 2021. The story takes place, according to Variety, “in a near future where tensions over race and gender have reached a violent extreme, the U.S. government institutes a public health initiative known as ‘The Freshening’: every American receives an injection, after which everyone only sees others as the same race and gender as themselves.”
The film follows Sam (as yet uncast) and Reese (Boyega), who may or may choose to disrupt this newly “freshened” world. I’m going with “may,” otherwise there won’t be much to the movie.
Yan is also attached to executive produce and direct the mystifying yet appealing live-action Paprika series adaptation that was announced last summer; it’s not clear what the release timeline is for either that series or this film. Deadline notes, “The team are underway on additional casting,” for The Freshening, which sound promising.
In the meantime, we can keep looking forward to Boyega’s appearance in the upcoming They Cloned Tyrone (pictured above), which hits Netflix on July 21st.
