Nicole Kidman’s character in Babygirl was named by a guru in her cult and commune upbringing, which wasn’t revisited meaningfully in the movie.

Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series spotlighting the scripts behind the year’s most talked-about movies continues with the Venice Film Festival-premiering Babygirl, A24 ’s erotic thriller from writer-director Halina Reijn that stars Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson. It hit theaters December 20.

While there have been debates about whether or not the film fully delivered (there are some Twitter truthers who argue it wasn't that kinky), the general public can all agree on one thing: the film's "Father Figure" scene was pure cinema.

The movie, starring Nicole Kidman, operates at the level of the female gaze. Its inversion of erotic thriller tropes leads to fascinating but, at times, tepid results.

During The Hollywood Reporter Writers Roundtable, 'Babygirl' writer Halina Reijn recalls the moment she knew she wanted to write for cinema, after seeing 'Annie' when she was six years old.

"A man directing this, it wouldn’t have been the same, because he can’t actually be in my body, but she can," she says of Halina Reijn

The writer and director Halina Reijn narrates a sequence from her film, featuring Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson.

Justin Kuritzkes (‘Challengers’ and ‘Queer’), Payal Kapadia (‘All We Imagine as Light’), Mangold (‘A Complete Unknown’), Reijn (‘Babygirl’) and Jason Reitman (‘Saturday Night’).

Halina Reijn is clearly in the A24 business. The Dutch actress-turned-director made her English-language feature debut for the studio with 2022’s “Bodies Bodies Bodies” starring Rachel ...

"Cementing her status as Hollywood's boldest actress, Nicole Kidman bares herself every which way – physically, emotionally and artistically – in 'Babygirl'", Halina Reijn's erotic thriller about a kinky workplace affair, said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times.

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Sonically, Perverts is far from its predecessor. Cain replaces the rousing, classic rock-esque riffs of what is arguably her most popular song, “American Teenager,” with a slow drone that thrums through the entire record — all distorted licks and haunting piano melodies.