Actress Sonoya Mizuno is poised to make her directorial debut with a project titled Stages, backed by Film4 and A24. While specific details about the project are under wraps, we are told that Mizuno's own dance background, honed at the Royal Ballet School in London and showcased in several prestigious ballet companies including the English National Ballet, Dresden Semper Oper Ballet, and Scottish Ballet, serves as the inspiration for the story.
Mizuno's screen acting debut came in Alex Garland's Ex Machina, and her film credits include Annihilation, Crazy Rich Asians, La La Land, and Shortcomings. On the small screen, she has starred in Devs, Maniac, and House of the Dragon.
Stages will be produced by Peter Rice, Myles Payne and Sam Ritzenberg of Agile Films, alongside Alex Garland, with whom Mizuno has had a long on-screen collaboration. Speaking with Deadline about working with Garland on Devs in 2020, Mizuno said: "He's always open to people giving their ideas, he takes them on, and it feels like a very equal place." "I'd say for me, a lot of the collaboration would be between me, Alex, and Rob Hardy, the DP. By this point, we'd developed this working relationship, which had always felt collaborative and unique to the three of us."
