Jaume Collet-Serra is done carrying Dwayne Johnson and Liam Neeson through action set-pieces. The prolific Spanish filmmaker has just signed on to direct “An Innocent Girl,” a dramatic psychological thriller for Netflix that promises to venture into distinctly steamier territory than his recent filmography.
After delivering Netflix's second-most-watched film of all time with “Carry On” (172.1 million views and counting), Collet-Serra seems to have earned the streaming giant's trust to explore the erotic thriller genre—a space Netflix has been aggressively reviving while traditional studios have largely abandoned it.
The film, described as following “a young and ambitious woman seduced by a high-powered D.C. couple” who finds herself “drawn into a dangerous world of sex, power and murder,” represents a clear departure from Collet-Serra's recent work. The script comes from Michael Mohan (“Immaculate”) with revisions by Marc Guggenheim (“Arrow”), suggesting a project that aims to balance psychological complexity with commercial appeal.
What makes this pivot particularly intriguing is Collet-Serra's curious career trajectory. He's cinema's greatest genre chameleon, jumping from horror remakes (“House of Wax”) to Liam Neeson vehicles (“Non-Stop,” “Run All Night”) to big-budget Disney adventures (“Jungle Cruise”) and superhero fare (“Black Adam”). The director seems perpetually in search of his true cinematic identity.
This erotic thriller could represent more than just another paycheck for the director—it might actually be the genre where his visual flair and talent for creating suspense could finally coalesce into something genuinely memorable. After all, the constraints of PG-13 blockbusters haven't exactly allowed Collet-Serra to fully express his filmmaking instincts.
Given Netflix's appetite for content that pushes boundaries their competitors won't touch, “An Innocent Girl” could become Collet-Serra's most culturally relevant work yet. The streaming platform has found success with similar adult-oriented thrillers in recent years, and pairing their algorithmic knowledge of viewership habits with Collet-Serra's commercial instincts could produce something genuinely worth watching—or at least more memorable than “Jungle Cruise.”
Whether this marks a genuine evolution for the director or just another genre experiment in his fascinatingly inconsistent career remains to be seen. But one thing's certain: in an industry obsessed with IP and franchise potential, there's something refreshing about a filmmaker willing to try his hand at anything—even if the results don't always stick the landing.
