THE CARETAKER: Sydney Sweeney to Star in Optioned Thriller

Sydney Sweeney to star in optioned thriller The Caretaker

Sydney Sweeney is the first cast member in the adaptation of the thriller The Caretaker.

Ms. Sweeney will be, if not already, a force to be reckoned with in the film industry. With another option on the table and two more projects currently in the pipeline, this is one busy lady. Especially considering that she counts among the producers in all four. But a quick look into her past shows that, to her, it’s business as usual.

As a member of the latest in generations of pioneers in the northwest Rockies, she started her career in her early teens in Washington State and Idaho. Evidently a natural athlete, triumphing in literally every high school sport, this did not compromise her academic achievements and eventually graduated valedictorian. At the age of 14, she moved to Los Angeles and her steady flow of successful ventures began.

She is perhaps the best known for her work in the series Euphoria as Cassie Howard, for which she earned her first Primetime Emmy nomination. But according to this reviewer, two later portrayals better represent the evolution of her craft on the screen. One is Eden Spencer in The Handmaid’s Tale, and the other is Olivia in White Lotus (her second Emmy nomination). The former (in the opinion of Yours Truly) is likely the better of the two, since the stakes are much higher for the particular transgression in which the naive young farm girl freely engages. Also, Eden seems to strike close to the heroine of The Caretaker, according to the logline: a woman who takes the eponymous job advertised on Craig’s List, and getting more than she bargained for — so this is a cautionary tale to boot. 

As mentioned, Ms. Sweeney will produce The Caretaker under her own production company, Fifty-Fifty Films, along with Michael Bay, Scott Glassgold, Brad Fuller (A Quiet Place), and long-time fiancé Jonathan Davino.

The real mystery surrounding The Caretaker is the source work itself. The script was co-authored by Karl Gajdusek. No mystery there; he scripted Oblivion, The November Man, Trespass, and most recently, The King’s Man.

But what of Marcus A. Kliewer, who also (supposedly) penned the novel, “We Used to Live Here”? After some digging, there is a Marcus Kliewer out there, but primarily as an animator and editor. A quick look in Amazon produced a puzzling result. It seems that both “The Caretaker” and “We Used to Live Here,” plus a myriad of others, was written by someone named Daniel Hurst. Also, Mr. Hurst seems to have no record of adapting his works for the screen. Okay, then — a pen-name? Possibly. But exploring a bit further did not provide a clue as to any connection between these two, so we may have a conundrum — something of a potential mini-thriller on its own.

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