EXCLUSIVE: Fresh off his first Academy Award nomination for The Secret Agent, Wagner Moura has inked a deal to star opposite Kristen Stewart in Flesh of the Gods, a vampire thriller from Mandy helmer Panos Cosmatos that A24 has newly boarded as U.S. distributor.
Moura takes over a lead role from Oscar Isaac, who we’re told exited due to a scheduling conflict.
First announced during the summer of 2024, as part of the Cannes Market, Flesh of the Gods follows Raoul (Moura) and Alex (Stewart), a married couple in glittering ’80s Los Angeles who descend each evening from their luxury skyscraper condo and head into an electric nighttime realm. When they cross paths with the mysterious and enigmatic Nameless and her hard-partying cabal, Raoul and Alex are seduced into a glamorous, surrealistic world of hedonism, thrills and violence.
Pic is written by Andrew Kevin Walker (Se7en) from a story by Cosmatos and Walker. Adam McKay and Betsy Koch are producing for HyperObject Industries, alongside Jonas Katzenstein and Maximilian Leo for Germany’s augenschein Filmproduktion, and Stewart and Maggie McLean for Nevermind Pictures. XYZ Films is handling international sales and financing the project in association with IPR.VC.
Moura made history with The Secret Agent by becoming the first Brazilian nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, as well as the first Brazilian to win a Golden Globe for acting and Cannes’ prize for Best Actor. Released in the U.S. by Neon, the film from Kleber Mendonça Filho had him playing Marcelo, a technology expert who becomes entangled in a high-stakes political conspiracy amid the final years of Brazil’s military dictatorship.
Breaking out a little over a decade ago with his turn as Pablo Escobar in Netflix’s Narcos, which brought him his first Golden Globe nomination, Moura has also recently been seen in Alex Garland’s A24 film Civil War, as well as Apple’s crime drama Dope Thief opposite Brian Tyree Henry. Next up, he’ll be seen starring in Louis Leterrier’s Netflix sci-fi horror flick 11817, opposite Greta Lee, as well as in the drama The Last Day, opposite Alicia Vikander. He is repped by WME and Johnson, Shapiro, Slewett & Kole.
