Kristen Stewart, Elizabeth Banks fit The Big Shoe

Kristen Stewart and Elizabeth Banks are newly attached to Steve Shainberg’s The Big Shoe, being sold by HanWay at the EFM. CAA reps domestic rights.

Andrew Lazar’s Mad Chance Productions will produce. Shainberg will direct a script that he co-wrote with Mickey Birnbaum. Richard Middleton and Christina Lurie are executive producing.

Sturgess plays Nate, a gifted shoe designer forced to break free from a family who want to turn his beautiful designs into mass-produced knock-offs for a quick buck.

The family hires psychotherapist Mary Kay (Banks) and ‘muse’ Delphi (Stewart) to lure Nate back to work.

Shainberg said: “The Big Shoe gives me the opportunity to explore a playful, romantic, sexy, intimate connection just as Secretary did. Not since that film have I had a script that combines eroticism and humor in such a fun way.

“I’m excited to work with such great actors - Jim Sturgess, Kristen Stewart and Elizabeth Banks - who I believe will be able to realize this script at the highest level. This is a script dear to my heart, and I intend to make a truly unique film from it.”

Thorsten Schumacher, MD of Hanway Films, said: “The director of Secretary making a film about shoes, fashion and fetishism was a must-have item for our team and to have such a stellar cast on board will make it a great fit for distributors.

“Georgina Goodman’s incredible designs threaten to steal every scene they’re in so we’ll see plenty of great marketing possibilities for the film.”

HanWay’s EFM slate includes Reykjavik starring Michael Douglas and Christoph Waltz, Dom Hemingway with Jude Law and Lone Scherfig’s Posh.