‘The Power Of The Dog’: ‘Jojo Rabbit’s Thomasin McKenzie, Kodi Smit-McPhee & More Join Benedict Cumberbatch In Netflix Drama

EXCLUSIVE: Jojo Rabbit star Thomasin McKenzie, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Joker actress Frances Conroy are set to co-star in the Jane Campion-helmed Netflix/See-Saw Films drama, The Power Of The Dog. They join previously announced stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons.

Campion adapted the pic based on the 1967 novel of the same name by Thomas Savage. The plot follows wealthy Montana brothers Phil (Cumberbatch) and George Burbank (Plemons), who are two sides of one coin. Phil is graceful, brilliant and cruel where George is stolid, fastidious and gentle. Together they are joint owners of the biggest ranch in the Montana valley. It is a place where men are still men, the rapidly modernizing 20th century is kept at bay and where the figure of Bronco Henry, the greatest cowboy Phil ever knew, is revered. When George secretly marries local widow Rose (Dunst), a shocked and angry Phil wages a sadistic, relentless war to destroy her entirely using her effeminate son Peter as a pawn.

Keith Carradine (The Old Man and the Gun, Madame Secretary), Peter Carroll (Crazy Rich Asians) and Adam Beach (Hostiles, Suicide Squad) have also been added to the cast.

See-Saw Films’ Emile Sherman and Iain Canning are producing the pic with Roger Frappier of Max Films, Campion (via Big Shell) and Brightstar’s Tanya Seghatchian. Exec producers are BBC Films’ Rose Garnett, See-Saw’s Simon Gillis and Brightstar’s John Woodward.

Netflix, which picked up the worldwide rights to the film at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, will release the film in 2021 in theaters and on its platform. Transmission Films will release the pic theatrically in Australia and New Zealand.

McKenzie, best known for her breakout role in the 2018 film Leave No Trace, is repped by UTA, Untitled Entertainment, Industry Entertainment, and Gail Cowan Management. Smit-McPhee, most recently seen in X-Men: Dark Phoenix and opposite Eddie Murphy in Dolemite Is My Name, is repped by ICM.  Conroy is with Paradigm and Echo Lake Entertainment.