Academy Award-winner Julianne Moore will star in Oscar-winning director Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language film The Room Next Door, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

THR got the confirmation from the director’s production company. He first spoke about Tilda Swinton being attached to the film last year. The Scottish actress worked with Almodóvar in the 2021 short film The Human Voice. The project premiered in Venice and is largely considered at the Spanish director’s first foray into making films in English.

This was followed by another short, 2023’s Strange Way of Life, which starred Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal. The short film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival.

The director said that these shorts were his test subjects so that he could grow comfortable in directing actors in English. He was attached to direct the English-language film A Manual for Cleaning Women starring Cate Blanchett (who was also producing). However, he pulled out of the project in 2022.

Pedro Almodóvar and La Movida Madrileña

Almodóvar came to Hollywood’s attention with 1988’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, which earned him his first Oscar nomination, for Best Foreign Language film. His 1999 film All About My Mother won 11 years later an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2000. This was followed by 2002’s Talk To Her which won another Oscar the following year for Best Writing, Original Screenplay.

His 2019 film Pain and Glory picked up two Oscar nominations; one for Best International Feature Film and another for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for star Antonio Banderas. This was Banderas’ first Academy Award nomination.

Almodóvar’s last feature film was 2021’s Parallel Mothers which starred frequent collaborator 2009 Oscar winner for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role, Penélope Cruz. His trademark in his films have been irreverent humor, pop culture quotes and complex narratives. His most notable films have mostly centered on women.

Julianne Moore won her Academy Award for Best Actress for 2014’s Still Alice. She has an upcoming period TV series on Starz, Mary & George. The actress recently starred alongside Natalie Portman in May December. The film has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Screenplay for Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik.