Ahead of major roles in both upcoming Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon and the Sony/Marvel superhero film Morbius, Matt Smith (The Crown, Last Night in Soho) has been cast in supernatural horror Starve Acre. The BAFTA and Emmy nominee will star alongside Morfydd Clark, the fast-rising Welsh actress who broke as the lead of A24’s critically acclaimed psychological horror Saint Maud and has spent the last few years filming Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (she plays Galadriel).
Based on the novel by Andrew Michael Hurley, Starve Acre is the much anticipated second feature from BAFTA Award nominated writer and director Daniel Kokotajlo, whose made waves with his 2017 directorial debut Apostasy. Cornerstone has come on board to handle worldwide sales following their successful collaboration with Apostasy and will launch the project at the Berlin Film Festival’s virtual European Film Market (EFM).
Billed as a modern horror exploring inherited trauma and loss within a world ruled by supernatural folklore, Starve Acre is set in rural 1970s England, where a couple’s seemingly idyllic family life is thrown into turmoil when their son starts acting out of character, creating an insurmountable wedge between the once happy couple. At Starve Acre, their remote family home, archaeologist Richard buries himself in exploring a folkloric myth that the ancient oak tree on their land is imbued with phenomenal powers. While his wife Juliette turns to the local community to find some kind of peace, Richard obsessively digs deeper. An unexpected discovery soon occupies the couple’s attention and dark and sinister forces, unwittingly allowed into the home, offer a disturbing possibility of reconnection between them.
Starve Acre is a House Productions film and is produced by BAFTA winner and Emmy Award nominee Tessa Ross (Brexit: The Uncivil War, Room, Carol, 12 Years a Slave), Emmy nominee Juliette Howell (Brexit: The Uncivil War, upcoming The Wonder) and Emma Duffy (The Phantom of the Open, Rocks). The film was developed with BBC Film and is funded by Access Entertainment together with BBC Film and the British Film Institute. It is currently in pre-production and will start shooting later this spring in the U.K. House Productions was launched in 2016 by Ross (former head of Film 4) and Juliette Howell (former head of Working Title TV) and was fully acquired by BBC Studios at the end of 2021. Kokotajlo won the IWC Schaffhausen Filmmaker Bursary Award in association with the BFI for Apostasy.
“Daniel is one of the most exciting filmmakers working today, and we’re thrilled to be bringing his adaptation of Andrew Michael Hurley’s extraordinary novel to the screen,” said Ross. “Starve Acre is already a genre defining modern classic – Daniel’s singular vision and this exceptional cast bring great depth and strength to this evocative story.”
Cornerstone’s Alison Thompson and Mark Gooder commented: “Daniel’s haunting cinematic vision for Starve Acre is breathtaking, and we’re excited to be able to continue our collaboration with him.”
Smith is represented by B-Side, Maison 2, UTA and lawyer Darren Trattner, Clark by Curtis Brown, UTA, Mosaic and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern, and Kokotajlo by 42MP.
Source: Hollywood
