Maggie Gyllenhaal Confirms She's Writing Two New Projects After 'The Bride!'

Academy Award nominee Maggie Gyllenhaal screened her new short movie, Flesh Impact, at the Busan Film Festival, where she also talked about her upcoming projects. The short, starring Academy Award winner Ellen Burstyn and Dakota Johnson, was commissioned by the Korean luxury car brand Genesis to commemorate Marilyn Monroe's 100th birthday. In it, Burstyn and Johnson play the cinematic icon at different stages in her life, with Emmy nominees Peter Sarsgaard and Sepideh Moafi also appearing.

At the Busan Film Festival's press conference, Gyllenhaal also talked about her upcoming projects, revealing she has begun to write them and is "in that very exciting place" of not knowing exactly what they will be. During the press conference for Flesh Impact at the Busan Film Festival, Gyllenhaal discussed both her upcoming movies and the creative approach she takes as a writer:

"(I)... kind of have two budding ideas that I've started to, begin to write. And I don't know what they're about. I mean, I generally do. But I find as I work — and this is true when I was an actress, it's even true with every film I've made as a director — that what they're really about reveals itself to me as I get a little deeper into it. You know, you start thinking, "Oh, I'm making a monster movie" or whatever it is, and then you think, "Oh, this is why this came to me, this is what I need to learn right now, and why I'm making this at this moment." And those two projects, those new ones, I'm open and I'm that very exciting place where I'm kinda like, "What is this gonna ultimately be about?" And it feels good."

Maggie Gyllenhaal Is All In on Her New Facet as a Director

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Currently, Gyllenhaal is fully focused on her directorial career, and she hit a new high with her 2026 slate. In February, she debuted The Bride!, a bold reimagining of the 1935 James Whale movie starring Academy Award winners Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale. The film received mixed reviews and was a box office bomb, although it did cement Gyllenhaal as one of the most original and daring auteurs working right now. With Flesh Impact, the actress turned writer and director shows a new side of her creative mind with a phantasmagoria that is both a love letter to Monroe and an insightful statement on the nature of acting and celebrity. The film screened as part of the festival's Special Screenings alongside the Monroe classic Bus Stop.

The Bride! is streaming on HBO Max. Stay tuned at Collider for more on what's next for Gyllenhaal.