Tessa Thompson to play a fencer who harnesses her dreams to train for Olympic gold in new thriller

She’s the butt-kicking friend to Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and it looks like she’s just found a formidable next role.

Tessa Thompson is attached to star in and executive produce new film Balestra, about a fencer with Olympic aspirations who is so determined to win gold, she submits to an experimental new technique that allows her to train in her sleep while lucid dreaming.

As reported by Deadline, the Creed star, 36, will headline the film opposite Marwan Kenzari, the actor who portrayed Jafar in Disney’s live-action version of Aladdin last year.

The film, which will be shopped during next week’s Cannes virtual market, fits well into Thompson’s oeuvre – she is most famous for playing the cosmic, sword-wielding warrior Valkyrie in the Thor films, and is also a series regular on HBO’s sci-fi/western epic Westworld.

Balestra will be directed by Nicole Dorsey. 

In a statement, the eloquent Thompson said, ‘Like the sport that Balestra explores, the conception of this piece is sharp and riveting – it is a fascinating look at the price of winning, and what trouble dreams can become when our sense of self worth, reality and identity are tethered too tightly to them.’ 

‘To embark on this journey, both in front of the lens and behind it, with Nicole Dorsey and this phenomenal team is a dream to me – a most beautiful one,’ she added.

Dorsey in turn echoed Thompson’s sentiments, saying in a statement, ‘To be working alongside the incredibly gifted and perceptive Tessa Thompson on this psychological thriller, ripe with themes of obsession, desire, prestige and fluctuating realities is quite literally a director’s filmic dream.’ 

According to the film’s brief description on IMDb, the fencer Tessa will portray is named Joanna, and she is ‘disgraced’ in some way at the beginning of the story.

This sets the stage for her dogged desire for a triumphant comeback, and soon Joanna is ‘pressured’ by both her husband and coach to use a device that allows her to continue training whilst lucid dreaming.

‘But reality begins to blur when she encounters a stranger named Elliot [to be played by Kenzari] and gets caught in her own web of subconscious desires and unfulfilled reality.’

In addition to Balestra, Thompson will once again don Valkyrie’s armor in the fourth installment of the Thor franchise, subtitled Love And Thunder, which will see Natalie Portman’s character Jane Foster take on the mantle and hammer of the Norse god.