IN BRANDON CRONENBERG’S SCI-FI THRILLER ‘POSSESSOR’
PRODUCTION SET TO BEGIN APRIL 2019
Berlin, Germany (February 10, 2019) BAFTA award winner Sean Bean (HBO’s “Game of Thrones”, The Martian), Academy Award nominee Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight, Annihilation), and Stacy Martin (Nymphomaniac Vol. 1 & 2, All The Money In The World) have joined Andrea Riseborough and Christopher Abbott in Brandon Cronenberg’s (Antiviral) highly anticipated sophomore feature film Possessor, it was announced today by producers Fraser Ash, Niv Fichman, and Kevin Krikst of Rhombus Media, and Andy Starke of Rook Films.
The film is slated to begin production in April 2019 and will shoot on location in Canada.
Cronenberg is directing from a script he wrote which follows Tasya Vos (Riseborough), an agent for a secretive organization who uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people’s bodies, driving them to commit assassinations for the benefit of high-paying clients. But something goes wrong on a routine job, and she soon finds herself trapped in the mind of an unwitting suspect (Abbott) whose appetite for violence turns out to rival her own.
“In addition to being exceptionally talented, Sean, Jennifer and Stacy have immense international appeal that perfectly rounds out the cast,” said Hamilton. “Under Cronenberg’s keen cinematic eye and teamed with the equally impressive Christopher and Andrea, this is the perfect complete package that makes Possessor a must have for our buyers.”
“We’re thrilled with the team assembled: the stellar cast, the terrific production and sales teams, all led by one of the world’s most intriguing directors,” said Fichman on behalf of the producers. “We’re all excited to get going!”
Possessor is produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada and Ontario Creates.
Arclight Film’s Gary Hamilton, Ying Ye, and Ryan Hamilton will Executive Produce, alongside Steven Squillante and David U. Lee of Leeding Media, Noah Segal and Adrian Love of Elevation Pictures, and Tony Roman.
Sean Bean is well-known for his roles in HBO’s award-winning series “Game of Thrones”, Peter Jackson’s blockbuster trilogy The Lord of the Rings, and Ridley Scott’s Academy Award nominated The Martian alongside Matt Damon. Bean recently won the BAFTA award for leading actor in the BBC series “Broken”. Bean currently stars in the Netflix series “Medici”.
With a storied acting career, Jennifer Jason Leigh has been nominated for an Academy Award for her supporting role in Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. Leigh’s film credits also include Alex Garland’s Annihilation alongside Natalie Portman, White Boy Rick with Matthew McConaughey, the Oscar nominated Anomalisa, and the critically acclaimed Cannes official selection Good Time with Robert Pattinson. Other notable projects include Ulu Grosbard’s Georgia, Joel Coen’s The Hudsucker Proxy, and Barbet Schroeder’s Single White Female.
Stacy Martin has appeared in Lars von Trier’s daring film Nymphomaniac: Vol 1 and Nymphomaniac: Vol 2, as well as Ridley Scott’s All The Money in the World, Michel Hazanavicius’ Godard Mon Amour, and Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise starring alongside Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, and Sienna Miller. Up next for Martin is Halo of Stars co-starring Lily Collins and Lukas Haas, and Kirsten Dunst’s directorial debut for The Bell Jar also starring Patricia Arquette, Dakota Fanning, and Jesse Plemmons.
Well Go USA Entertainment will release the film in the US. Elevation Pictures will distribute the film in Canada. Arclight Films is representing foreign rights to the sci-fi thriller at the European Film Market in Berlin.
Bean is repped by ICM Partners and Independent Talent Group. Leigh is repped by CAA and Untitled Entertainment. Martin is repped by WME, Agence Adequat and 42 Management.
ABOUT RHOMBUS MEDIA
Rhombus Media is a leading producer of feature films and television drama. Since its inception in 1979, the company has released over 200 productions and has received literally hundreds of awards, including numerous Genies, Geminis, Canadian Screen Awards, several Emmys and an Oscar. Some of the company’s more notable projects include Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould, The Red Violin, Clean, Blindness, Into The Forest, Hobo With A Shotgun, Antiviral, Closet Monster and Enemy. Rhombus’ latest film The Man Who Invented Christmas, a Charles Dickens biopic starring Dan Stevens, Christopher Plummer and Jonathan Pryce, was released throughout North America in November 2017. The company is currently in post-production on Clifton Hill, a new film from director Albert Shin, starring Tuppence Middleton, Hannah Gross and Marie-Josée Croze. For more information, please visit www.rhombusmedia.com.
ABOUT ROOK FILMS
Rook Films was formed in 2008 by producer Andy Starke and director Ben Wheatley. Rook has made 6 films with Wheatley including, Free Fire, which won the Midnight Madness Audience Award at its world premiere at TIFF 2016 and was the closing night gala at LFF16. Jim Hosking’s cult classic The Greasy Strangler premiered at the Sundance Film festival and won BIFA and Empire awards for Best Comedy. His latest feature An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn will be released by Universal in 2018. Peter Strickland’s The Duke of Burgundy was the best reviewed film at TIFF 15 and his new film IN FABRIC will be completed in 2018. Rook has a slate of movies and television in production and development with directors and writers Ashim Ahluwalia, Justin Anderson, Brandon Cronenberg, Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Kier-La Janisse, Richard Littler and Ben Rivers.
ABOUT ARCLIGHT FILMS
Arclight Films is one of the world’s leading international sales companies for theatrical, television and home entertainment. Arclight Films has sold over 300 motion pictures including the Best Picture Oscar® winner Crash, and Golden Globe® Best Picture Nominee Bobby and Lord of War starring Nicolas Cage, Jared Leto and Ethan Hawke.
Arclight Films’ slate includes the Berlinale official selection Öndög from Chinese auteur Wang Quan’an, the real-life prison break feature film Escape from Pretoria starring Daniel Radcliffe, the big budget Chinese co-production Killer 10 to be directed by Phillip Noyce, the female-led Vietnamese action thriller Furie starring Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s Veronica Ngo, and the high-octane sci-fi thriller Replicate.
The company’s recent films include the highly anticipated Hotel Mumbai starring Armie Hammer, Dev Patel, Nazanin Boniadi, Anupam Kher, and Jason Isaacs, directed by Anthony Maras which will be released in the US by Bleecker Street on March 22nd, writer and director Paul Schrader’s critically acclaimed First Reformed released theatrically by A24, starring Ethan Hawke and Amanda Seyfried, and has received several nominations and awards including the Academy Award, Gotham Awards, Critics’ Choice Award and the Indie Spirit Awards, among other accolades, and the successful biopic Jungle starring Daniel Radcliffe released by eOne.
Arclight’s past films include 2016 Official Cannes Directors’ Fortnight selection Dog Eat Dog starring Nicolas Cage and Willem Dafoe, The Confirmation starring Clive Owen and Maria Bello, directed by Academy Award-winner Bob Nelson (Nebraska), 2016 Sundance Official Selection Frank & Lola starring Imogen Poots and Michael Shannon, Predestination starring Ethan Hawke released through Sony Pictures, Last Knights starring Clive Owen and Morgan Freeman, Paper Planes starring Sam Worthington, and Shangri-La Suite starring Emily Browning and Luke Grimes.
Arclight Films additionally encompasses subsidiary labels Darclight Films, the edgy genre-driven division of the company whose films include the worldwide horror hits Wolf Creek, Wolf Creek 2 and action thriller Bait 3D (the highest grossing Australian film in the history of Chinese cinema), and Easternlight, a specialty arm showcasing Asian cinema with the largest film library of any non-Asian-based indie film label. Films sold under the Easternlight banner include the worldwide blockbuster Forbidden Kingdom starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li, 14 Blades starring Donnie Yen, and legendary auteur Chen Kaige’s Sacrifice.
The latest additions to Easternlight include Triple Threat starring Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, Tiger Chen and Celina Jade, Guardians Of The Tomb starring Kellen Lutz and Bingbing Li, Snow Girl And The Dark Crystal starring Bingbing Li, Wolf Warrior starring Wu Jing (which opened #1 at the Chinese Box Office, earning more than $32.5M in one weekend) Outcast starring Nicolas Cage, Special Id Starring Donnie Yen, and Badges Of Fury.
Arclight Films maintains a presence at all major motion picture and television festivals and markets with offices in Los Angeles, Sydney, Hong Kong, Beijing and Toronto. For more information on Arclight Films please visit www.arclightfilms.com.
ABOUT LEEDING MEDIA
Leeding Media is an international film and television company that serves as a bridge between the U.S. and Chinese entertainment industries. With offices in Beijing and Los Angeles, the company focuses on three main areas: acquiring rights to films for distribution in China; independent film production; and working with American studios, filmmakers and rights holders as well as Chinese investors, distributors and media companies to identify, negotiate and execute mutually beneficial partnerships and co-productions.
Led by founder and CEO David U. Lee and partner and COO Steven Squillante, Leeding Media is the premier independent aggregator and distributor of international films in China. In collaboration with its partners, Leeding Media is currently in production on the comedy drama, Richard Says Goodbye, starring Johnny Depp, has theatrically marketed 12 feature films and controls exclusive Chinese digital distribution rights to nearly 500 titles. These include such acclaimed films as Best Picture Oscar®-winner Million Dollar Baby, Whiplash, Nightcrawler, Rush, Bobby, A Single Man and Kinsey, as well as blockbusters including the Divergent series, Ender’s Game, Ghost Rider 2, Underworld, Malcolm X, GI Jane and The Wedding Planner.
In 2014, the company helped orchestrate the launch of groundbreaking Chinese subscription streaming service Lionsgate Entertainment World, a joint venture between Lionsgate and China’s Alibaba Group.
In November 2016, Leeding Media announced a significant investment from China’s WinDigital Investment Fund, enabling it to increase its activities in licensing, co-financing, and producing films for both the Chinese and global markets.
(10)
The post SEAN BEAN, JENNIFER JASON LEIGH, AND STACY MARTIN JOIN BRANDON CRONENBERG’S SCI-FI THRILLER ‘POSSESSOR’ appeared first on FilmSnobbery.