Margaret Qualley is to star in King Snake.

The Substance actress has signed up for the gothic horror alongside Outer Banks star Drew Starkey and Nuremberg actor Michael Shannon, with Jeff Nichols set to produce and direct.

The film follows a young couple - played by Qualley and Starkey - who inherit a farm in rural Arkansas, and find they must conquer the demons that haunt its legacy, with challenges in the real world posing as much of a threat as otherworldly myths and creatures.

Jeff and his Tri-State Pictures partners Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Sarah Green will produce in association with Range Media Partners, while FilmNation will finance the project.

The Tri-State Pictures trio said in a statement: "We are extremely excited to be partnering with FilmNation once again, having fortified a strong creative relationship with them over the years.

"FilmNation has an exceptional track record supporting unique, innovative voices and auteur filmmakers, having produced and financed some of the most remarkable, award-winning films of our time. There was no better partner for King Snake than Glen and the entire FilmNation team."

FilmNation CEO Glen Basner added: "Jeff is a singular filmmaker and King Snake will bewitch and enthrall audiences around the world with a startling new vision of the supernatural forces that hover just beyond our everyday perceptions."

Qualley recently declared she isn't ready to take on a role in a movie franchise.

Taking part in Collider's Ladies Night interview, she was asked during the Dicey Questions round: "If you could join the film franchise of your choice, what She replied: "I don't think I want to commit to a franchise.

"It seems like a lot of time. I'm a commitment-phobe maybe. But also, no one's asking me to do anything."

But the 30-year-old actress hasn't completely ruled it out.

Asked what she'd need to happen to sign a "five film agreement", she said: "Probably just a director.

"I think if you have an amazing director you feel safe and excited."

Speaking of commitment, Qualley was left with cuts and acne from The Substance prosthetics.

The actress played party animal Sue in the 2024 satirical body horror film, who is the "more perfect" version of 62-year-old co-star Demi Moore's Elizabeth Sparkle, and it took a year for her skin to recover.

Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast this week, she spilled: "Like, at the end, when they're shooting up my skirt in the beginning credits, and it's like the palm trees all around and they have all these long lenses from the bottom, that's just because my face was so f***** up by that time that they couldn't, like, shoot my face anymore."

Her face still had blemishes when she started filming her next project, Kinds of Kindness, in which she plays four people.

She went on: "So, you know the character that has all that acne? That was just my acne from the prosthetics.

"And I was like, 'Oh this is kind of perfect. I'm playing all these different characters -- for one of them we'll use all my crazy prosthetic acne.' It took me probably a year to recover physically from all of it."