Sydney Sweeney will star in and produce a contemporary reimagining of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow told from Katrina Van Tassel’s perspective, directed and written by Lindsey Anderson Beer. The project, mounted through Sweeney’s Honey Trap banner and based on Beer’s forthcoming novel, arrives 27 years after Tim Burton’s film with Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci.
Sleepy Hollow gets a shake-up as Sydney Sweeney fronts and produces Hollow, a contemporary take that centers Katrina Van Tassel. Director-writer Lindsey Anderson Beer steers the retelling, adapted from her own forthcoming novel, with Sweeney’s Honey Trap backing the project. The shift in perspective recasts the legend as a mysterious, supernatural love triangle with Katrina at its core. It also follows the 1999 Tim Burton film with Christina Ricci and Johnny Depp, trading gothic nostalgia for a heroine-led lens.
A fresh take on a classic tale
Nearly 3 decades after Tim Burton turned the Headless Horseman into pop folklore for a new generation, the legend is riding back into view. Sydney Sweeney will lead and produce Hollow, a contemporary reimagining of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The aim is simple and timely: give the story’s most overlooked figure, Katrina Van Tassel, the spotlight and the agency the canon has rarely afforded her.
Hollow: Sydney Sweeney’s latest project
Written and directed by Lindsey Anderson Beer (Sierra Burgess Is a Loser), Hollow reframes Irving’s 1820 myth through Katrina’s eyes. Sweeney will star as the young woman often treated as a prize rather than a person, placing her at the center of a dangerous mystery and a charged, otherworldly love triangle. The film is in active development, with US distribution and release plans still to be announced.
Sweeney is also producing the project through her own banner, reinforcing a move we have already seen in her recent career steps. After the box office momentum of Anyone But You and the genre bite of Immaculate, she is leaning into roles that let her shape material from the ground up. That creative control should matter here, where tone and point of view will carry the whole design.
The legacy of Sleepy Hollow
Washington Irving’s story has been retold for more than 200 years, but few versions loom as large as Burton’s 1999 film starring Christina Ricci and Johnny Depp. Its fog-soaked sets and baroque menace remain a touchstone. Hollow does not chase that look. Instead, it seeks to honor the lineage while pivoting to character study, folding in psychological tension and romance with a modern pulse (as reported in trade coverage).
This shift feels overdue. Katrina has often been a narrative endpoint, not a protagonist. By giving her the narrative keys, Hollow can test the legend’s elasticity, asking who wields power when superstition, desire and fear collide. If it lands, the result could sit comfortably alongside past classics while speaking to today’s audiences.
What’s next for Sydney Sweeney
Hollow slots into a busy stretch for Sweeney, who continues balancing commercial plays with hands-on producing. US release timing for Hollow is not set, but the project signals where she is headed: genre with teeth, female-led perspectives, and stories she can build as well as headline. Indeed, that combination may be her most reliable calling card yet.