Sophie Turner to play a troubled American teen in Huntsville

Sophie Turner’s star is continuing to rise. Earlier this year, she had a starring role as Jean Grey in X-Men: Apocalypse (the movie wasn’t very well reviewed, but hey, it could have been worse). Now, The Hollywood Reporter has it that Turner, who’s been cutting it up as Sansa Stark on Game of Thrones for six seasons now, will star alongside Dylan McDermott (The Practice, American Horror Story) in Huntsville. Production will begin this month.

Huntsville will revolve around McDermott’s character, “a solitary man living a dull existence in a sleepy Florida town.” Quite possibly the town is called Huntsville. Turner will play Josie, a high school student newly arrived in the area. The two character start up a relationship THR describes as “questionable,” and given that McDermott is 54 and Turner is 20 but playing younger, we see its point.

The role has the potential to be controversial, but it also has the potential to cement Turner as a bankable actress in the minds of Hollywood producers, and be a boon to her film career down the line. Her trajectory reminds me a bit of Emilia Clarke’s (Daenerys Targaryen). Clarke starred in the big budget Terminator Genisys, a film that was even more poorly reviewed than X-Men: Apocalypse, before taking smaller roles in movies like Me Before You and, soon, Above Suspicion, where she’ll play a Kentucky informant. These actresses seem to be taking a break from big tentpole movies to do some gritty drama, which will probably help them later.

Well, that didn’t really work out.

Also, it’s possible that Turner will be speaking with a southern American accent, which would be fun to hear. Finally, might this be the reason she recently dyed her hair blonde?

Huntsville will be directed by Eric England from a Black List script by Anthony Ragnone. (The Black List is an annual survey of the “most liked” scripts that have yet to be produced. It’s kinda misleading, but it means the script is good.)