EXCLUSIVE: Tessa Thompson, Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Owen Cooper are attached to star in Foxfinder, a psychological thriller from Severance director Aoife McArdle.
Production will begin this summer in Bavaria, Germany on the film, which is based on Dawn King’s 2011 play of the same name, with a screenplay co-written by McArdle and King.
Foxfinder will follow Jude and Sam, a grieving couple clinging to routine and survival, whose lives are upended when William, a coldly devout government “foxfinder,” arrives at their struggling farm with a mission to root out the designated enemy – the fox. As paranoia festers and absurd regulations tighten their grip, suspicion replaces love, and truth itself begins to warp.
Cornerstone and Logical Pictures Group are co-representing international sales and distribution, and will launch the sales at Cannes. WME Independent, Cornerstone and Logical Pictures Group are jointly representing US rights.
The film is a Rabbit Track Pictures and Elation Pictures production developed with Film4 and the BFI, co-produced by Germany’s Komplizen Film and Trimafilm. In addition to support from Film4 and the BFI, financiers include Logical Pictures Group, German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), the Bavarian fund FFF Bayern and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. It is produced by Kamilla Hodøl and Emilie Jouffroy for Elation Pictures, Rabbit Track Pictures’ Kitty Kaletsky, Komplizen’s Janine Jackowski, and David Armati Lechner from Trimafilm. Executive producers are Farhana Bhula and Cate Kane for Film4 and Fred Fiore and Ryan Wickers for Logical.
“Aoife is a visionary storyteller, and her bold and cinematic take on Foxfinder will be both epic and deeply probing,” said Hodøl and Jouffroy. ”We are thrilled to be bringing it to life with such a stellar cast and supportive backers.”
“Foxfinder’s searing and absurdist examination of tyranny, prejudice and scape-goating feels more timely with every week that goes by and the play and film’s themes will resonate with audiences all around the world,” said Kaletsky.
“Supporting Aoife on her second feature alongside her dedicated producers has been a priority for Film4,” said Bhula. ”She’s an exceptional filmmaker of remarkable precision and imagination. Foxfinder speaks powerfully to our current moment, and we’re thrilled to see it brought to life by such an extraordinary cast.”
“Foxfinder is a timely and truly original film that speaks powerfully to an increasingly fractured world, and we’re delighted to introduce it to buyers at Cannes,” said Cornerstone’s Alison Thompson and Mark Gooder.
“Foxfinder is smart, original and genuinely distinctive,” said Andreï Kamarowsky, head of international at Logical Pictures. “Aoife McArdle brings a bold cinematic vision, and with such an exceptional cast and team in place, we’re excited by its international potential and thrilled to be bringing it to Cannes with our valued partners at Cornerstone.”
Earlier this year, the project received €1.4m ($1.7m) in funding from the international co-productions strand of the Bavarian film fund, for projects that are partly or wholly filming in the region.
Irish writer-director McArdle previously directed feature Kissing Candice, which debuted in Toronto’s Discovery strand in 2017. From 2020 to 2022, she was a director and producer on Apple TV+ series Severance, directing three episodes of the show.
Komplizen and Trima recently partnered on German filmmaker Eva Trobisch’s Home Stories, which had its world premiere in Competition at the Berlinale in February.
Elation Pictures was listed as ‘Ones to watch’ in Screen’s Brit50 feature of leading UK independent production companies in November. Last year the company filmed Maria Martinez Bayona’s BBC Film-backed sci-fi The End Of It, which will have its world premiere in the Cannes Premiere section at Cannes Film Festival next month
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