Tessa Thompson is adding another major project to her roster. The BAFTA and Emmy-nominated actress is set to star in Foxfinder, a psychological thriller directed by Aoife McArdle, the Emmy-nominated director behind Severance. Joining Thompson are Golden Globe and Emmy winner Owen Cooper (Adolescence) and two-time Emmy winner Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear).
The film is based on the award-winning play by Dawn King, which took home the 2011 Papatango New Writing Prize. McArdle and King co-wrote the screenplay together. Production kicks off in Bavaria, Germany this summer.
Here’s the setup: Foxfinder centers on Jude and Sam, a grieving couple trying to hold their lives together on a struggling farm. Everything shifts when William, a coldly devout government “foxfinder,” shows up with one mission — root out the fox, the state’s designated enemy. What follows is a slow unraveling where paranoia takes over, regulations close in, and the line between love and suspicion starts to disappear.
The film is a Rabbit Track Pictures and Elation Pictures production, developed with Film4 and the BFI, and co-produced by Komplizen Film (Toni Erdmann) and Trimafilm. Financing comes from Logical Pictures Group, the German Federal Film Fund, FFF Bayern, and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.
Cornerstone and Logical Pictures Group are co-repping international sales and will launch at Cannes. WME Independent, Cornerstone, and Logical Pictures Group are jointly handling U.S. rights.
Producer Kitty Kaletsky summed up the film’s relevance plainly: “Foxfinder’s searing and absurdist examination of tyranny, prejudice and scape-goating feels more timely with every week that goes by.”
That tracks. Between Thompson, Moss-Bachrach, and Cooper, the cast alone makes this one to watch.