You’d be hard-pressed to find a major Hollywood actor or actress who hasn’t been courted to appear in a superhero film. But in HBO‘s new miniseries, Irma Vep, Alicia Vikander plays an actress named Mira, whose desire to escape from the world of big-screen superheroes drives her to take the leading role in a remake of the silent French horror film, Les Vampires. In fact, Irma Vep is not only the name of Mira’s character in the film, but it’s also an obvious anagram for “vampire.” Unfortunately for Mira, her reality is about to get much weirder as the lines between her and her character begin to blur.
In the first trailer for the miniseries, Mira is overjoyed to be working with the acclaimed director, René Vidal (Vincent Macaigne). But it looks like René’s high-strung personality and his literal clash with one of his performers may sink the movie before it can be finished.
Adria Arjona also stars in the miniseries as Laurie, with Carrie Brownstein as Zelda, Tom Sturridge as Eamonn, Fala Chen as Cynthia Keng, Devon Ross as Revina, Byron Bowers as Herman, Jeanne Balibar as Zoe, Lars Eidinger as Gottfried, Vincent Lacoste as Edmond Lagrange, Hippolyte Girardot as Robert Danjou, Alex Descas as Gregory Desormeaux, Nora Hamzawi as Carla, and Antoine Reinartz as Jeremie. Kristen Stewart will have a minor role in the miniseries as well.
Olivier Assayas wrote and directed Irma Vep based on his own 1996 movie of the same name. The eight-episode miniseries will premiere on HBO and HBO Max on June 6.
