Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal Reunite in Heartfelt Love Story “Hold On To Your Angels” at Cannes
Academy Award winner Jessie Buckley and nominee Paul Mescal, the stars of Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, are set to reunite in Hold on to Your Angels, a film written and directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of The Southern Wild).
Produced by Plan B (Moonlight) alongside Alex Coco (Anora) under the Rapt Film banner, production is slated to begin in February 2027. The Veterans will handle international sales, while domestic distribution rights are represented by CAA Media Finance.
This highly anticipated project will be showcased to buyers at the upcoming Cannes market, where industry insiders expect strong interest from studios, raising questions about why it hasn’t already been picked up.
Set in the picturesque yet turbulent landscapes of South Louisiana, Hold on to Your Angels “follows a hell-bound outlaw (Mescal) and a ferocious shepherd of lost souls (Buckley) who fall in catastrophic love as their crumbling bayou paradise drags them under.”
Buckley won the Best Actress Oscar for her role in last year’s Hamnet, while Mescal received a Lead Actor nomination for 2022’s Aftersun.
Zeitlin described Hold on to Your Angels as “the most impossible love story I’ve ever witnessed — an outlaw romance for the end of America, set on the crumbling edge of South Louisiana.” He added, “I’ve been dreaming of telling it since its hero, Pam Harper, walked into an audition for Beasts of the Southern Wild 17 years ago. It’s a love letter to an endangered way of life — and a rallying cry for empathy across a fractured planet.”
Plan B expressed enthusiasm about the project, stating, “Benh Zeitlin absolutely stunned us and the world at large with the cosmic sorcery of Beasts of the Southern Wild. With Hold on to Your Angels, Benh has set his powerful mix of intense realism, myth, and magic against the large scale of an epic love story. This is a writer-director with a vision for the ages, and we could not be more proud to be by his side to make this film with Jessie and Paul.”
Coco added, “After years of working with filmmakers that explore the overlooked corners of our world, I can recognize Benh Zeitlin as a filmmaker with that rare gift: the ability to reveal profound beauty and humanity in parts of America that seldom find their way onto the silver screen.”
Buckley is represented by CAA, United Agents, and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole; Mescal is represented by CAA and Curtis Brown Group; Zeitlin is represented by CAA and Gang Tyre.
