Florence Pugh is currently starring as Cathy Ames in Netflix’s East of Eden, has The Midnight Library movie adaptation on the way, and is expected back for Avengers: Secret Wars. And now, tucked inside her new Vanity Fair cover story, comes the news that she will also play both identical twin sisters in Cassandra at the Wedding, the long-gestating adaptation of Dorothy Baker’s 1962 novel, with filmmaker India Donaldson directing.
Playing both halves of a codependent twin dynamic in the same film is not a small task. Pugh described it as “totally terrifying but exciting,” which is exactly the right response. She will also co-produce the film.
What Is Cassandra at the Wedding About?
Dorothy Baker’s 1962 novel, Cassandra at the Wedding, follows Cassandra Edwards, a Berkeley graduate student who returns to her family’s ranch in the Sierra foothills for the wedding of her identical twin sister, Judith. Cassandra arrives determined to sabotage the marriage, but what unfolds is driven by the sisters’ intense, complicated, and deeply codependent bond.
The dual role, as the source puts it, sounds squarely in Pugh’s wheelhouse. Speaking about the kinds of characters she gravitates toward, Pugh has been refreshingly direct:
“Really, really juicy complicated women are my fetish.”
“I do think there’s something really empowering about seeing a woman scream in the face of her destiny. And to be able to get to do that in my lifetime, acting it, just in case I don’t do that in my actual lifetime, is also really cool.”
Cassandra Edwards is absolutely that kind of woman.
The Long Road to Production
This adaptation has actually been in the works for several years. Neon first acquired the rights to Baker’s novel in 2022 and has been developing the project in partnership with Seaview and John Early.
Bodies Bodies Bodies screenwriter and playwright Sarah DeLappe was hired to adapt the book and serve as executive producer. Brad Becker-Parton and Greg Nobile were attached to produce alongside Early and Leslie Conliffe.
The new iteration brings Donaldson aboard as director. Her feature debut, Good One, premiered at Sundance in 2024 before heading to Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, establishing her as a filmmaker particularly drawn to complicated interpersonal and family dynamics. It is a very promising match for Baker’s material.
No release date has been announced, and no other casting has been confirmed alongside Florence Pugh.
Two Sisters, One Actress, No Easy Answers
Pugh has also revealed that she eventually wants to direct, though she is not rushing into it. About the kind of filmmaker she wants to be, she was characteristically clear: “I don’t like messy sets,” she said, noting that she wants people to feel cared for and able to concentrate on the work.
The co-producing credit on Cassandra at the Wedding feels like a natural step in that direction, giving her creative investment in a project that will demand everything she has.
There is no release date yet. But India Donaldson, directing Florence Pugh, who plays both twins in a 1962 novel about sisterhood and sabotage, is already one of the most interesting things in development anywhere. This one is worth watching very closely.
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