Emma Thompson vs. Judy Greer. Who are you putting your money on?
Thompson takes on a new genre in Dead of Winter, a Polar Noir action/suspense-thriller, which finds Thompson as a woman named Barb, stranded on a solo trip into northern Minnesota, where she stumbles upon a couple who have kidnapped a teenager. Here she comes to save the day. The Day of the Jackal, Luther, and The Riches director Brian Kirk directs the movie, with Judy Greer and Marc Menchaca as the kidnappers. Will this be more like Liam Neeson’s slick Cold Pursuit or Mads Mikkelsen’s thawed-out Polar? Either way it looks like the latest, welcome addition to production studios flipping the traditional Old Man roles in the action sphere to women, following Jamie Lee Curtis (64) in the recent Halloween trilogy and Linda Hamilton (63) in Terminator: Dark Fate, and Jodie Foster (62) in True Detective: Night Country (Thompson is 66).
Whether you know her from Much Ado About Nothing, Dead Again, Merchant-Ivory, Sense and Sensibility, Men in Black, Nanny McPhee or Harry Potter, the two-time Oscar winner never disappoints. Check out this trailer for Dead of Winter (also released as The Dead of Winter):
Filmed in Finland instead of Minnesota, with a 1970s Ford pickup truck and a Chevy El Camino, Dead of Winter arrives in theaters September 26, 2025.
C.J. Bunce / Editor / borg
