“The Crown” star Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark, who will appear in the upcoming “Lord of the Rings” series “The Rings of Power,” will star together in a supernatural horror film called “Starve Acre.”
Daniel Kokotajlo (“Apostasy”) will direct and write the screenplay for his sophomore film based on the novel of the same name by Andrew Michael Hurley.
Set in 1970s rural England, the story follows an archaeologist named Richard, who buries himself in exploring a folkloric myth that the ancient oak tree on the land his family lives on is imbued with phenomenal powers. While his wife, Juliette, turns to the local community to find some kind of peace, Richard obsessively digs deeper. But an unexpected discovery soon occupies the couple’s attention and their seemingly idyllic family life is thrown into turmoil when their son Ewan starts acting out of character, creating an insurmountable wedge between the once happy couple. The film is described as a brooding and stylistic modern horror story about inherited trauma and loss within a world ruled by supernatural folklore.
Cornerstone has come on board to handle worldwide sales for the film at the European Film Market.
“Starve Acre” is a House Productions film and is produced by Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell and Emma Duffy. The British film was developed with BBC Film and is funded by Access Entertainment, together with BBC Film and the BFI (with National Lottery funding). It is currently in pre-production and will start shooting later this spring in the U.K.
House Productions was launched in 2016 by Tessa 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.”
Smith is represented by B-Side, Maison 2, UTA and lawyer Darren Trattner. Clark is represented by Curtis Brown, UTA, Mosaic and Sloane, Offer, and Weber & Dern. Kokotajlo is represented by 42MP.
