Todd Haynes has announced he will direct a film adaptation of Jean Genet's play The Maids, with Cate Blanchett set to join the cast.
The American filmmaker revealed the project in an interview with French magazine Le Point, confirming that the production will be his next cinematic effort following the completion of his period drama De Noche.
Haynes explained that he has developed a singular vision for the adaptation, remarking that while he could not yet disclose specific narrative details, he had never seen his particular creative approach used elsewhere. He added that he expects Blanchett to take part in the production after she previously starred in a high-profile theatrical staging of the material alongside French actress Isabelle Huppert.
The announcement followed reports circulated online by entertainment outlet Film Updates on October 23, 2026, which stated that Haynes would likely adapt the stage drama with Blanchett in line to star.
Jean Genet Stage Classic
First staged in Paris in 1947, The Maids, known in French as Les Bonnes, remains one of the most prominent works by French playwright and novelist Jean Genet. The psychological drama centres on two sisters, Claire and Solange, who work as domestic servants in the household of an affluent socialite referred to simply as Madame.
Whenever their employer leaves the residence, the two sisters enter into an elaborate, ritualistic role-playing game. In these clandestine sessions, they dress in Madame's wardrobe, vent their deep resentment against their social superior, and repeatedly rehearse her humiliation and violent murder.
Genet loosely based his theatrical scenario on the real-life 1933 case of Christine and Lea Papin, two French domestic workers who killed their female employer and her daughter in Le Mans. The double murder captivated the French public and was subsequently analysed by French intellectuals, including philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre and psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, as a striking manifestation of class struggle and psychological isolation.
Genet himself emerged as a leading figure of post-war European avant-garde literature and the Theatre of the Absurd. Over decades of writing, he focused on societal outcasts, institutional power, and criminal subversion across acclaimed works including The Balcony and The Screens.
Blanchett Stage History
Blanchett is already intimately familiar with Genet's dark drama, having played the role of Claire in 2013 in a landmark production directed by Benedict Andrews for the Sydney Theatre Company. That production featured Isabelle Huppert as Solange and Elizabeth Debicki as Madame.
Following its initial season in Australia, the production travelled to New York, where it was presented at the Lincoln Center Festival, according to cinema publication World of Reel.
Blanchett, an Australian actress and two-time Academy Award winner, served as joint artistic director of the Sydney Theatre Company alongside her husband, playwright Andrew Upton, between 2008 and 2013, overseeing major international productions during her tenure.
Haynes noted that Blanchett will participate in the film, leaving open whether she will return to her stage role as Claire or instead take on the part of Madame. If her participation is finalised, the film will mark her third feature project with Haynes.
Past Collaborations and De Noche
The pair first worked together on the 2007 experimental biographical drama I'm Not There, in which Blanchett portrayed Jude Quinn, a character inspired by 1960s musician Bob Dylan, earning an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. They reunited for the 2015 romantic drama Carol, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel The Price of Salt, which brought Blanchett an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.
Haynes is currently putting the finishing touches on De Noche, an independent romance set between two men in the 1930s. The film stars Pedro Pascal and Danny Ramirez and completed principal photography on location in Mexico in April.
Pascal stepped in to headline De Noche as a gay detective after Joaquin Phoenix abruptly walked away from the production shortly before cameras were scheduled to roll, an eleventh-hour exit that had threatened to shut down the project entirely.
According to Spanish newspaper El Pais, De Noche is scheduled for theatrical distribution in 2027, with industry insiders anticipating that the film will make its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in France.
Haynes, who received an Academy Award nomination for writing the 2002 drama Far from Heaven, has long been recognised as a central figure in American independent cinema and the New Queer Cinema movement, known for films including Poison, Safe, and May December.
