From “Hamnet” to Hell-Bound Romance: Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley Reunite for “Hold On To Your Angels”
Paul Mescal and newly minted Oscar winner Jessie Buckley are reuniting in a film that will find them portraying characters as far afield from William and Agnes Shakespeare as one could imagine.
The duo is set to co-star in Benh Zeitlin’s Hold On To Your Angels, which follows a hell-bound outlaw (Mescal) and a ferocious shepherd of lost souls (Buckley) whose catastrophic romance is set against the disintegrating bayou paradise that threatens to pull them under. It’s a potent concept, made even more intriguing by the fact that Zeitlin brought us Beasts of the Southern Wild, which shocked the film world when it was released in June of 2012. Beasts of the Southern Wild, also set in the Louisiana bayou, was a vision of lush magical realism buoyed by the breakout performance of Quvenzhané Wallis. It was ultimately nominated for four Academy Awards—Best Picture, Best Director (Zeitlin), Best Actress (Wallis), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Lucy Alibar, Zeitlin).
“Hold On To Your Angels is 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,” said Zeitlin in a statement. “I’ve been dreaming of telling it since its hero, Pam Harper, walked into an audition for Beasts of the Southern Wild seventeen years ago. It’s a love letter to an endangered way of life — and a rallying cry for empathy across a fractured planet.”
The film will be produced by Plan B and Alex Coco, under his Rapt Film banner.
“Benh Zeitlin absolutely stunned us and the world at large with the cosmic sorcery of Beasts Of The Southern Wild,” said Plan B in a statement. 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.”
“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,” said Coco.
Featured image: Jessie Buckley stars as Agnes and Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare in director Chloé Zhao’s HAMNET, a Focus Features release. Credit: Agata Grzybowska / © 2025 FOCUS FEATURES LLC
