The British pop star Charli XCX is set to star alongside actors Natalie Portman, Jenna Ortega, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Zach Galifianakis, Sterling K. Brown, and Catherine Zeta-Jones in the upcoming art world flick The Gallerist, directed by Cathy Yan. The dark comedy will follow in the proud footsteps of several recent camp psychological thrillers that take aim at the theatrics of the art world, from The Square (2017) to Velvet Buzzsaw (2019).

If you thought Maurizio Cattelan’s banana taped to the wall was the most absurd or disturbing sight you could ever see at Art Basel Miami Beach, think again. All we know so far about this film’s plot is that it centers on one desperate art dealer trying to sell a corpse at the fair. Yikes!

The galling prospect must raise many questions for any seasoned collector. For example, how easy is it to store remains in a Swiss freeport? Once it starts decaying, is it too late to flip it? We’ll have a while yet before we get any answers, since shooting was only slated to begin in late 2024.

In the meantime, not much is yet known about Charli’s ascent to the silver screen, though she has earned credits on a few other mysterious titles still in post-production, including 100 Nights of Hero, in which she apparently plays a character called Rosa, and the rather ominous sounding Faces of Death.

In The Gallerist, will Charli play an accomplice or an innocent collector? Her Instagram follows suggest that, should she take the latter role, she might be on the lookout for works by rising star painter Lucy Bull or photographer-of-the-moment Rene Matić.

We can only guess at how Charli will find time to make it to set between shows scheduled on her worldwide Brat Tour, which debuted in the U.K. last month and sees the singer-songwriter head to New Zealand and Australia in February 2025 before traveling to the U.S. in April.

Art Basel Paris 2024. Courtesy of Art Basel.

Last October, Yan and Portman were spotted by many art world insiders trawling the aisles of Art Basel Paris, reportedly as part of their research for her role as a gallerist. We are relieved to hear that such serious attention is being paid to reflecting the realities of the art world. Will there be a chorus of insistent claims about “brisk sales” just as the once-abundant flow of free champagne suddenly dries up? Will a leak in the roof drip water over prized paintings? We can’t wait to find out more.

Yan has previously directed Bird of Prey (2020), about comic book character Harley Quinn. The script for The Gallerist was written by James Pedersen, who so far has relatively few screenwriting credits, but these include the 2022 action film High Heat.