If you need someone to adapt an all-American bestseller involving aquatic wildlife, Olivia Newman is the film-maker for you. Following 2022’s Where the Crawdads Sing, Newman has co-written and directed Remarkably Bright Creatures, a drama based on Shelby Van Pelt’s octopus-centric novel. Sally Field stars as Tova, a grieving aquarium cleaner, alongside Lewis Pullman as Cameron, a troubled young man who comes to work with her. The film’s narrator is Marcellus, a giant Pacific octopus who observes the two new friends. And, in a stroke of casting genius, Marcellus is voiced by Alfred Molina, who played Doctor Octopus in two Spider-Man films. Don’t expect any superheroics, though. “Remarkably Bright Creatures is a story of love and grief,” Van Pelt said on Netflix’s official site. “Those are two emotions that everyone who walks this planet feels at some point, so the themes are very widely resonant.”
