Why Zach Cregger Chose Jennifer Lawrence for The Flood

Casting is often a game of timing, nerve, and a persuasive pitch. For Zach Cregger, it was all three—and then some—when he set his sights on Jennifer Lawrence for The Flood. He didn’t send a cold script and wait. He chased a meeting. He sold an idea with the kind of breathless enthusiasm that makes you lean in.

Cregger, the filmmaker behind Barbarian and Weapons, told A Shot magazine that Lawrence wasn’t just a name on a list. She was an actor he’d admired for years. He admits he almost didn’t know whether she realized he was trying to book time with her. So he improvised: a hurried online call, a raw pitch, and the kind of urgency that comes from knowing opportunity won’t wait. The gamble paid off—she read the script and agreed to join.

I'm completely mesmerized by what she can do.

The Flood will be Cregger’s original sci-fi thriller, and he wears three hats on the project—writer, director, and producer—working with New Line, Amblin, and Vertigo. So far, Lawrence is the only cast member announced. Plot details and the nature of her role remain under wraps, which only fuels speculation: what crazy new corner of space or psychology will Cregger explore this time?

He’s said the germ of the film came from a single question: what could be the scariest thing that happens in space? The answer, apparently, pushed him toward unfamiliar technical terrain. Cregger calls The Flood the strangest, most human story he’s penned. Strange, yes. Human, absolutely. Terrifying? By his own admission, very. He also confessed that several sequences—especially the ending—are the ones he’s most excited about, even while he’s not yet sure how to pull them off practically.

That nervousness is telling. Cregger believes that if a new project feels too safe, it’s probably not stretching him enough. He’s deliberately leaned into uncertainty with The Flood, treating the creative and technical challenges as part of the film’s lifeblood. That tension—between ambition and doubt—gives the whole thing energy. It also explains why he’s privately hopeful this might be his proudest work yet once it’s finished.

Contrast this with his experience on Resident Evil, a studio-sized undertaking that he assumed would be a relatively smooth ride. He thought he could shoot wild set pieces, layer in humor, and tinker with visual ideas like a day at the spa. The reality was tougher. The shoot tested him in ways he hadn’t anticipated and, in the end, made him more eager to return to original storytelling—stories that stand or fall on their own merits, devoid of franchise expectations.

Still, taking Resident Evil on came with its own lessons. Cregger’s version didn’t lean on familiar game characters; instead it followed a new protagonist, Brian, played by Austin Abrams, a medical courier who stumbles into Raccoon City on the worst possible night. That decision—the desire to reinvent rather than replicate—reflects how Cregger thinks about genre and audience. He wants to surprise viewers, not just satisfy them.

The Flood isn’t his only upcoming project. He’s also developing Gladys, a prequel to Weapons centered on Aunt Gladys, with Amy Madigan set to return. Yet it’s The Flood that has him most animated in interviews. It represents a willingness to enter new territory and to accept the discomfort that comes with genuine invention.

The film is slated for release on August 11, 2028. Between the casting coup, the mixing of horror and high-concept sci-fi, and Cregger’s admission that he’s still figuring out technical solutions, The Flood feels less like a typical studio announcement and more like the start of a daring experiment. Are we ready for what comes next? Cregger clearly is—nervous grin and all.