Jennifer Coolidge is arguably more popular than she has ever been. After The White Lotus, an HBO series in which she played a heartbroken vacationer — a position she almost turned down — the actress has received considerable Emmy buzz. She was such a hit with the audience that she’ll be one of the few cast members returning for Season 2, which will take place at a different resort with a different cast of characters. (She will not feature in the Party Down revival, despite the fact that she only appeared in two episodes of the original.) But she’s also collaborating with one of television’s most prolific chroniclers on something that sounds much darker than a show marked by one character’s tragic death.
According to Deadline, Coolidge will join the cast of The Watcher, a film starring Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale about a couple whose dream home is invaded by an unpleasant visitor. They begin to receive unsettling messages from a mysterious stalker known only as of the titular sobriquet soon after they move home.
It’s unclear who Coolidge will portray, but the show will be inspired by a terrifying true story of a couple who paid nearly $1.4 million for a 1905 Dutch colonial revival in Jersey in 2014, only to have to flee after receiving unsettling letters from someone known only as “The Watcher” (which is also, oddly, the name of the house). The stalker claimed they had been watching the house for decades.
In the meantime, Coolidge will be back on screens soon enough, appearing in Single All the Way, billed as Netflix’s first gay holiday movie and due on the streamer Dec. 2.
