Babe Nation Films, Elevation Pictures and Castelletto Films are partnering with Lionsgate on the psychological thriller Alice, Darling, starring Anna Kendrick.

Production on the female-filmmaker led film is currently underway in Toronto, with British actress and filmmaker Mary Nighy, who has previously directed TV episodes of Industry, Traces and Silent Witness, making her feature directorial debut. She will direct from a script penned by Alanna Francis, who also penned Babe Nation’s feature film The Rest of Us.

Producers on the project are Babe Nation’s Katie Bird Nolan and Lindsay Tapscott and Elevation’s Christina Piovesan and Noah Segal. Executive producers are Kendrick and Sam Tipper-Hale.

In Canada, Elevation Pictures will handle distribution, while Lionsgate will handle international distribution.

The film sees Kendrick play a girl called Alice who is acting strangely and hiding things about her boyfriend from her two best friends. When the three pals take a trip out of town, all those secrets are revealed when a local girl goes missing and Alice’s boyfriend arrives unannounced. Starring alongside Kendrick are Nigerian-born British actress Wunmi Mosaku and Kaniehtiio Horn, who is from Kahnawake, the Mohawk reserve outside of Montreal. British-Canadian actor and Canadian Film Centre graduate Charlie Carrick plays the volatile boyfriend.

For Kendrick, the gig comes on the heels of roles in HBO Max’s Love Life and the Netflix feature Stowaway, in addition to a voice role on Trolls Worldwide Tour. Mosaku’s prior credits include Netflix’s His House and Disney+ original Loki, while Horn starred in Brandon Cronenberg’s Possessor and Letterkenny.

Alice, Darling is made with the financial support of Ontario Creates and Urban Post.

For Babe Nation, the project marks the third feature film it has produced, following The Rest of Us, starring Heather Graham and Sophie Nélisse, and White Lie, which it produced alongside Lisa Pictures and Film Forge.

Meanwhile, for Elevation, the project comes as it continues to build momentum in the coproduction space. After its formation in 2013, Elevation focused squarely on film distribution for its first three years (including releasing titles such as Moonlight and The Imitation Game) before expanding into production in 2016. On the production front, its credits include The Nest, starring Jude Law and Carrie Coon, Golden Globe-nominated French Exit, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges, and the upcoming comedy The Exchange.

Image: Gage Skidmore, via Wikimedia Commons