"Mothers' Instinct" Poster: Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain, the Oscar-winning duo, at odds

The film is an upcoming psychological thriller directed by Benoît Delhomme.

Mothers’ Instinct circles Oscar-winning ladies Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain in a psychological thriller plot. The film is helmed by Benoît Delhomme and is a remake of Olivier Masset-Depasse‘s 2018 French-language film Duelles for an American audience. The story is based on the 2012 novel Behind the Hatred (Derrière la haine) by Barbara Abel. The original director Masset-Depasse was set to helm the remake himself before he had to leave for a family commitment, leaving the reins of the project to Delhomme.

The film’s plot revolves around two housewives from the 1960s as their friendship rapidly deteriorates following a tragedy. The movie will explore themes of motherhood and jealousy. The exact details of the remake’s plot, however, are kept under wraps — but it’ll likely mirror the novel’s story. Chastain and Hathaway were set back in 2020 to star in the film.

Chastain, who won an Oscar for her role in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, previously spoke to IndieWire about her experience working in Mothers’ Instinct:

“Annie and I, we have a lot of fun in that movie. And it’s a throwback to another…I like to think of it like a little bit of ‘What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?’ Of course it’s a different kind of film, but it’s this idea of these two actresses coming together and playing this…the tension I think is very interesting. Thank god Annie and I love each other, so it’s a little different than that experience.”

The Cast of ‘Mothers’ Instinct’4 Images

Josh Charles, Anders Danielsen Lie, and Caroline Lagerfelt also star in the film alongside the Chastain-Hathaway duo. Charles and Danielsen Lie are set to play the husbands, but it’s not yet clear who plays whose husband. In the original Mothers’ Instinct, Veerle Baetens and Anne Coesens play the complex friendship duo of Alice Brunelle and Céline Geniot, alongside their on-screen husbands Mehdi Nebbou and Arieh Worthalter.

A brief trailer for Mothers’ Instinct 2023 remake was released before being unexpectedly taken down. Neon acquired the rights to distribute the film in the North American region last year. Mothers’ Instinct does not have a release date either as of yet. However, the poster release and some behind-the-scenes paparazzi photos spotlight the Oscar-winning duo in a very Mad Men’s Betty Draper-style look.

Mothers’ Instinct marks itself as Hathaway’s second upcoming psychological thriller — the first one being Eileen, which is set to release on December 1, 2023. While there’s no release date for Mothers’ Instinct yet you can check out the new poster of Mothers’ Instinct below:

Mothers’ Instinct

Alice and Celine live a traditional lifestyle with successful husbands and sons of the same age. Life’s perfect harmony is suddenly shattered after a tragic accident. Guilt, suspicion and paranoia combine to unravel their sisterly bond.