EXCLUSIVE: Deadline has learned that Haley Bennett is in final talks to star in and produce the feature adaptation of Jackie Polzin’s bestselling debut novel Brood for Topic Studios.
The actress will produce Brood with her Cyrano film director Joe Wright and reteam with her Swallow producer Mollye Asher. A search for a director is underway.
Bennett first found Brood and then brought it to Asher, then to Wright.
Brood, which was published by Doubleday back in March, follows a woman as she heroically tries to keep her brood of four chickens alive against a fierce Minnesota environment, from a brutal winter to a sweltering summer which brings a surprise tornado. She battles predators, bad luck, and the uncertainty of a future that may not look anything like the one she always imagined. As the year unfolds, we come to know the small band of loved ones who comprise her circumscribed life at this moment: Her mother, a flinty former home-ec teacher who may have to take over the chickens; her best friend, a real estate agent with a burgeoning family of her own; and her husband whose own coping mechanisms for dealing with the miscarriage that haunts his wife are more than a little unfathomable to her. Brood was longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s 2021 First Novel Prize.
Topic Studios The feature film will be executive produced by Maria Zuckerman, Ryan Heller and Michael Bloom for Topic Studios. Heller, SVP of Film and Acquisitions, will shepherd the project for Topic Studios. Asher is producing Brood through her Population Productions.
Asher and Bennett previously teamed on the 2019 mystery thriller Swallow which saw the latter winning Best Actress at the Tribeca Film Festival. Asher received a Best Picture Oscar this year for Searchlight’s Nomadland. In the Carlo Mirabella-Davis directed Swallow, Bennett plays a newly pregnant housewife, who finds herself increasingly compelled to consume dangerous objects. As her husband and his family tighten their control over her life, she must confront the dark secret behind her new obsession. Bennett also executive produced Swallow.
MGM/UAR Bennett and Wright have MGM/United Artist Releasing’s Cyrano opening on Dec. 17 for an exclusive one week theatrical run before receiving a platform expansion on Jan. 21, followed by a wide break in early February. Bennett and Peter Dinklage reprise their Goodspeed Opera House roles as Roxanne and Cyrano in the Erica Schmidt scripted musical from the 1897 Edmond Rostand play. Cyrano made its world premiere at Telluride and has racked up an 88% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Deadline’s Pete Hammond beams “Bennett is a revelation, a lovely voice paired with an innate understanding of Roxanne’s complications in love and life.”
Next up for Bennett is Orion/UAR’s Till from filmmaker Chinonye Chukwu, Jamie Adams’ She Is Love, and Lionsgate’s Eli Roth feature take on videogame Borderlands. Her previous feature credits include Hillbilly Elegy, The Girl on the Train, Magnificent Seven, The Equalizer and The Devil All the Time. She is repped by WME, Tavistock Wood Management and Brecheen Feldman Breimer Silver Thompson.
The CAA repped Wright counts a cinematic canon which has amassed 21 Oscar noms and four wins from such movies as Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Anna Karenina and The Darkest Hour.
Polzin is represented by The Friedrich Agency and WME.
Topic Studios is the award-winning entertainment studio from First Look Media, which develops, finances, and produces content for all platforms including theatrical, streaming, television, and podcasts. Recent films include Pablo Larrain’s acclaimed Spencer, now in theaters and starring Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana which has made over $13M WW; Lucy Walker’s wildfires documentary Bring Your Own Brigade, on Paramount +; Kevin Macdonald’s recent legal thriller The Mauritanian, starring Jodie Foster (Golden Globe winner for her performance), Tahar Rahim (Golden Globe nominee for his performance), Benedict Cumberbatch, and Shailene Woodley (STX); and the Academy Award-winning Spotlight. Topic Studios’ documentaries include the big wave surfing series, 100 Foot Wave, recently renewed for a second season, and the three-part documentary series, Nuclear Family, both on HBO/HBO Max; The Fight, co-released with Magnolia Pictures; and Mucho Mucho Amor on Netflix; to television with the Film Independent Spirit Award-nominated docuseries Love Fraud and the Emmy Award®-winning and Peabody Award nominated 16 Shots, both on Showtime.
