Elisabeth Moss is praised as the horror author Shirley Jackson in Shirley's first trailer which has now been released in early June.
Elisabeth Moss is the famous author Shirley Jackson in Shirley's first trailer released at the beginning of June. Jackson was born in 1916 and her first novel The Way Through the Wall was published in 1948. Much thanks to her 1948 short story "The Lottery," as well as her 1959 ghost novel The Haunting of Hill House, Jackson would later make her name as a horror and mystery writer.
Indeed, with its memorable tale of the supernatural, it was the Haunting of Hill House that would bring Hollywood to Jackson's doorway. The book was first adapted in 1963 as the classic film The Haunting, with Robert Wise in the director's chair, and was re-adapted in 1999 with modern day special effects and behind the camera, Twister director Jan De Bont. Netflix has taken the plot back to the acclaimed ten-episode show in 2018 once more.
Now, Jackson's own life story is going to get the film treatment, with Moss at the lead role. NEON has unveiled the first trailer for the film, titled simply Shirley. Co-starred by Michael Stuhlbarg, Odessa Young and Logan Lerman, the film directed by Josephine Decker and executive producer Martin Scorsese is expected to be released on Hulu and on demand on 5 June 2020.
The movie certainly sounds reminiscent of the classic film Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, with its tale about a middle-aged Jackson and her husband "toying" with a naive young couple. The key draw of the film, of course, is Moss, who has become a master in recent years at portraying women cracking under stress, or even going through harrowing emotional experiences that often cause them to lose touch with reality. Moss obviously rose to fame playing the fairly cool Peggy Olson on AMC's Mad Men, and only later became a genius meltdown artist in movies such as Queen of Earth, Her Scent and The Invisible Man this year.
Indeed with her compelling role as a stalking survivor in Invisible Man, it's already been a good year for Moss. Shirley can at least go by the trailer and give Moss another opportunity to show off her talents in a vehicle that seems to be well suited to her. And with the Oscars now claiming streaming videos are eligible for awards, don't be shocked to see Moss getting a buzz from the Academy Awards that looks like an actress' showcase movie. Indeed, it will be interesting to see how the awards season shakes off with so many movies hitting streaming and on-demand platforms without even getting the theatrical runs that were once required for Oscars eligibility.
