Director Scott Derrickson has revealed exciting new details about his upcoming sci-fi action horror movie, The Gorge, featuring Golden Globe winner Anya Taylor-Joy as an elite sniper. Her character is tasked with guarding the gateway to hell, marking Derrickson’s return to high-profile action films since directing Doctor Strange in 2016.
In a recent interview with GamesRadar+, Derrickson shared that his vision for The Gorge was inspired by several popular horror video games, including Silent Hill and Until Dawn. “I love those games, and I do think that gaming has sort of set the bar for gun-play action,” he explained. “Especially if you’re really with a single character or two characters, you kind of can’t beat it.” He emphasized the challenge his team faced in balancing the thrill of gaming-inspired action with maintaining a compelling narrative: “The challenge was to have that kind of stimulus and power and really utilize that. But then to also really keep the romance alive.”
The Gorge is directed by Derrickson, known for his work on The Black Phone, from a screenplay penned by Fast X scribe Zach Dean. Alongside Taylor-Joy, the film also stars Miles Teller as Levi, Sigourney Weaver as Bartholomew, Sope Dirisu as J.D., and William Houston as Erikas, among others. The film is produced by a team that includes Derrickson, Dean, David Ellison, Don Granger, C. Robert Cargill, Adam Kolbrenner, Gregory Goodman, Dana Goldberg, and Sherryl Clark, with Teller also serving as an executive producer. The Gorge is a production of Apple Studios and Skydance Media.
The official synopsis for The Gorge reveals a gripping story: “Two highly-trained operatives are appointed to posts in guard towers on opposite sides of a vast and highly classified gorge, protecting the world from an undisclosed, mysterious evil that lurks within. They bond from a distance while trying to stay vigilant in defending against an unseen enemy. When the cataclysmic threat to humanity is revealed to them, they must work together in a test of both their physical and mental strength to keep the secret in the gorge before it’s too late.”
Prior to taking on this new role in The Gorge, Anya Taylor-Joy starred in 2024’s action prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and made a cameo appearance in Dune: Part Two as Alia Atreides. Fans can expect her character to play a much larger role in the upcoming third installment, Dune: Messiah. Following her award-winning performance in Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit miniseries, Taylor-Joy is set to return to television in the upcoming Apple TV+ crime drama titled Lucky. In this new series, she will portray “a young woman who left behind the life of crime she was raised in years ago, but must now embrace her darker, criminal side one final time in a desperate attempt to escape her past.” The show will also feature Annette Bening and Timothy Olyphant.
The Gorge is set to debut on Apple TV+ on February 14, and anticipation is building as fans eagerly await Anya Taylor-Joy’s captivating performance in this thrilling adventure.
