Olivia Cooke has been cast as Sally Bishop in “Brides,” a 1960s-set vampire thriller from director-writer Chloe Okuno, after original lead Maika Monroe withdrew because her shooting dates clashed with Universal’s adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s Reminders of Him.
The NEON-backed feature follows Sally and her husband to a remote Italian villa whose enigmatic owner—described in early materials as “a mysterious count”—takes an unsettling interest in his guest, only to find her “feminist chaos” upends his carefully curated coven of vampire brides.
Producer Anthony Bregman called Okuno’s script “dynamic and unsettling in all the best ways,” praising its blend of Gothic menace and gender-politics bite. Okuno previously teamed with Monroe on last year’s stalker hit Watcher, but industry sources say she approved the recasting swiftly to keep the project on track for a spring 2025 start in Budapest, doubling for coastal Italy.
Cooke, known for HBO’s House of the Dragon and Oscar-nominated drama Sound of Metal, steps into her first horror lead since 2018’s Thoroughbreds; commentators note the role continues NEON’s strategy of pairing prestige television talent with elevated genre fare following Nicolas Cage’s Longlegs and Kristen Stewart’s Immaculate.
Monroe’s exit stems from her commitment to play Kenna Rowan in Reminders of Him, now scheduled to film April-June 2025 ahead of a Valentine’s 2026 release. While neither actor has commented publicly, social-media posts from horror outlets greeted Cooke’s arrival with enthusiasm, citing her “capacity for combustible vulnerability” displayed in Sound of Metal and Bates Motel.
Financing is handled by NEON alongside producer Likely Story, with international sales launching at this week’s Cannes Market; insiders say distribution talks in key European territories accelerated once Cooke signed, boosting the film’s profile amid a wider revival of Dracula-inspired stories that includes Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. Principal casting for the count and Sally’s husband is under way, with production expected to wrap by late summer.
