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Letitia Wright is attached to star in and executive-produce In Her Shadow, a supernatural horror feature from writer-director Rowan Athale, with Bankside Films launching world sales at the American Film Market, Deadline reported exclusively on 6 November. Ed Barratt and Richard Wylie of Public Pictures and Mark Lane of Tea Shop Films produce alongside Bankside’s Stephen Kelliher and Sophie Green; the project is in pre-production.
Key facts
- Title: In Her Shadow; writer-director Rowan Athale (Gangs of London, Wasteland); star and EP Letitia Wright via 3:16 Productions
- Producers: Ed Barratt and Richard Wylie (Public Pictures); Mark Lane (Tea Shop Films – 47 Metres Down, Fall, The Surfer, Obsession); Stephen Kelliher and Sophie Green (Bankside Films)
- Status: pre-production; Bankside developed the screenplay and is launching world sales at AFM
- Logline (Deadline): a celebrated author adopts her late estranged sister’s daughter and comes to fear there was a reason the child was locked in a basement
The AFM sell
Wright’s BAFTA-winning profile (Black Panther, Small Axe, Black Mirror) gives Bankside a recognisable lead for a contained supernatural thriller at a market already thick with casting packages. Tea Shop’s recent credits – including the breakout horror Obsession – and Bankside’s sales history on Talk to Me are the commercial shorthand buyers will read on the one-sheet. Athale’s feature debut Wasteland (also known as The Rise) premiered at Toronto and drew BIFA and London Film Festival nominations; his later credits include Netflix’s Outside the Wire and Sky’s Gangs of London.
Kelliher told Deadline the company is collaborating with Athale for a third time and framed Wright as the reason the developed Public Pictures screenplay is now coming together. Athale called the film “terrifying, propulsive and emotional.” Budget, shoot location, start date and supporting cast were not disclosed. Representation notes in the Deadline report put Wright with The Artists Partnership, Range and SOWDLLP, and Athale with The Artist’s Partnership.
Where it sits among AFM packages
FilmBunch has already tracked Rosamund Pike’s body-horror Feed, Jeremy Renner’s 12 Bullets and Romania’s Country of Focus designation into the same Santa Monica week. In Her Shadow is the clearer UK horror sell: a named star with EP credit, a sales agent coming off Talk to Me, and a producer group tied to recent commercial genre hits. What it does not yet offer buyers is a locked shoot window or a co-financing partner beyond the producing banners named above.
Our reading
For international buyers, the useful signals are Wright’s attachment, Bankside’s sales mandate and Tea Shop’s genre track record. Pre-production status means the package is past pure development but not yet a delivery date. The next evidence that would move it from flyer to closing is a start-of-production notice, a US deal, or a disclosed budget range that places it against recent mid-budget supernatural titles Bankside and Tea Shop have already sold.
Related: Rosamund Pike’s Feed AFM launch; Lokia’s twelve-distributor network; Torino Film Festival’s 44th edition.