Regina’s Minds Eye Entertainment has signed The A-Team star Jessica Biel as the lead in their upcoming suspense thriller The Tallman.

The $15 million Canada-France treaty copro begins shooting on September 15th and is written by Paris-based filmmaker Pascal Laugier (Martyrs, Saint Ange) who will also direct. Minds Eye is producing (80%) with Radar Films (20%) of Paris.

‘It’s a thriller about a woman [Biel] who lives in a small run down town in the Rockies,’ says Minds Eye CEO Kevin DeWalt. ‘Her child is abducted and a chase begins.’

The desperate mother attempts to track down the mysterious figure of ‘The Tallman’ who has kidnapped her child.

DeWalt says the shoot will take place in Saskatchewan and on location in either Alberta or B.C. Scouting in both provinces is underway. Sets are being built at the Canada-Saskatchewan Soundstage in Regina.

Distributors are Alliance in Canada and SND Films internationally.

Minds Eye has just wrapped filming in Winnipeg on Faces in the Crowd, another treaty copro with minority participation from Radar Films.

The $15 million psychological thriller is the story of a schoolteacher, played by Milla Jovovich (The Fourth Kind, Resident Evil) who is attacked by a serial killer and left with a neurological disorder known as face blindness. She works with a detective (Julian McMahon of Fantastic Four and Nip/Tuck) to identify her attacker. The movie is written and directed by French filmmaker Julien Magnat who is making his feature length debut.

Faces in the Crowd is structured as both an international treaty copro with French companies Forecast Pictures and Radar Films, as well as an interprovincial coproduction with Winnipeg’s Frantic Films.

Post-production including VFX is underway in Saskatchewan. The film is being distributed internationally by Voltage Pictures and in Canada by E1.