EXCLUSIVE: Rocket Science is launching world sales ahead of the Cannes market on under-the-radar UK psychological thriller She Will, the debut film from UK artist and filmmaker Charlotte Colbert with an original score from Black Swan and Requiem For A Dream composer Clint Mansell.
Starring are Alice Krige (Carnival Row), Kota Eberhardt (X-Men: Dark Phoenix), Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange), Rupert Everett (The Happy Prince), Jon McCrea (Cruella) and Amy Manson (The Nevers).
Currently in the final stages of post-production, the Brit List screenplay charts the story of Veronica Ghent (Krige) who after a double mastectomy, goes to a healing retreat in rural Scotland with her young nurse Desi (Eberhardt). There she discovers that the process of such surgery opens up questions about her very existence, leading her to start to question and confront past traumas. The two develop an unlikely bond as mysterious forces give Veronica the power to enact revenge within her dreams. Today we can also reveal a first look image from the film.
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Producers are eyeing a fall debut for the feature, which is produced by the UK’s Popcorn Group (Dali Land) and executive-produced by Ed Pressman (American Psycho). Jessica Malik and Bob Last have been steering the production.
Written by Kitty Percy and Colbert, the movie was shot on location in Scotland with a high end production team including editor Yorgos Mavropsaridis (The Favourite), cinematographer Jamie Ramsay (Mothering Sunday) and some of the same crew from Jonathan Glazer’s Under The Skin, which was a touchstone for the filmmakers.
Sam Pressman, Ed Clarke, Sam Cryer, Hannah Leader, Thorsten Schumacher and Sara Woodhatch are also executive producers. The indie pic was financed through post deals, VXF deals, private equity, the tax credit and loan deals.
“The story of She Will has themes I’ve always been interested in within my practice and within my life”, said director Colbert. “How trauma blurs our experience of reality and time, how nature holds so much solace, how we all carry within us the muscle memory of those who came before and those who will come after, how the infinitely small, like a cell, contains the same patterns as the universe. How meaning and perspective and reality and time are all such fragile constructs that can break at any time. The genre of psychological horror seems to allow more artistic freedom than drama. It also at its heart fittingly captures those existential feelings.”
The movie could be the next in a run of impressive genre debuts from British female filmmakers after the wow breakthroughs of Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman) and Rose Glass (St Maud). Mansell was impressed enough to watch the movie multiple times and commit to it soon after receiving it.
“We were all entranced and inspired by Charlotte’s incredibly assured debut. She has created a visually stunning, haunting film with captivating lead performances. She Will marks a major new talent of note,” commented Thorsten Schumacher of Rocket Science, which will be teasing footage to buyers in coming weeks.
“I’m very excited for the world to soon see She Will. I’ve been blown away by Charlotte Colbert’s artistic vision and, having worked with many first-time filmmakers in my career, hold Charlotte in the highest regard,” explained producer Ed Pressman who boarded early.
Added actor Malcolm McDowell: “The visuals are extraordinary, original and unique. I came off the shoot really high on it. I’m really happy I did it. And I don’t say that often. I really don’t. But this time I can.”
Rocket Science’s Cannes Film Festival slate includes Sean Penn’s Flag Day which screens in Official Competition and Eva Husson’s Mothering Sunday which screens in the Premiere Section.
Colbert’s artwork has been shown at Somerset House, V&A Museum of Childhood, Saatchi Gallery, Art Basel and Centre Régional d’Art Contemporain in Sète. She has written screenplays for Olivier Dahan, Eric Cantona, Tony Grisoni and Harry Wootliff and made shorts including The Silent Man (2016) starring Simon Amstell and Sophie Kennedy Clarke.
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