'House of Cards' star Kristen Connolly to lead 'Slumber'

Cabin In The Woods and House Of Cards star Kristen Connolly is to topline supernatural thriller Slumber, which Goldcrest will be selling at the American Film Market (AFM) (Nov 4-11).

Shooting is due to start at the end of January 2016 on the feature debut of well-known commercials director Jonathan Hopkins with additional casting currently underway.

Slumber tells the story of Alice (Connolly), a rationally-minded sleep doctor, who is forced to abandon scientific reason when confronted by a family that being terrorised by a parasitic demon.

Slumber is written by Hopkins and 2013 Blood List screenwriter Richard Hobley. It will be produced by Mark Lane and James Harris of The Tea Shop & Film Company, who are also producing claustrophobic thriller 47 Meters Down for eOne and Dimension.

Executive producers are Nick Quested and Pascal Degove for Goldcrest Films.

Goldcrest first introduced the project last year and has been showing distributors a teaser shot over two days by Hopkins.

Completed deals include Malaysia (Suraya), Indonesia (Queen), Taiwan (Movie Cloud), Turkey (Filmdom), Philippines (Pioneer), Middle East (Selim Ramia), South Korea (Sun Pictures), Vietnam (Soundspace) and Thailand (Sahamongkol).

Connolly has started filming Barry Levinson’s HBO film Wizard of Lies opposite Robert DeNiro and Michelle Pfeiffer after wrapping the first season of CBS sci-fi thriller Zoo and Steven Spielberg-produced mystery drama The Whispers for ABC.

While filming season two of House of Cards, Connolly also shot feature A Good Marriage opposite Joan Allen and Anthony LaPaglia directed by Peter Askin. 

Director Hopkins said: “I’ve had an eye on Kristen since Cabin In The Woods and couldn’t be more thrilled to have her on board to play the lead in Slumber.

“She’s perfect for the role of Alice and it’ll be extremely exciting to see her bring the character to life. We’re aiming very high with this production and Kristen’s calibre provides a definitive step in the right direction.”

Pascal Degove, MD of Goldcrest Films added: “Kristen is a real rising star – it’s a massive testament to the strength of the project that it is resonating both with quality talent and quality distribution partners.”

Hopkins is represented by Humphrey Ellis Hill of Independent Talent Group. Hobley is represented by Anthony Mestriner of Casarotto, Chris Smith of Paradigm in the US and managed by Jon Kanak of Jon Kanak management who also associate produces.

Goldcrest’s AFM slate includes recently announced Joe Dante thriller Labirintus as well as Simon West’s The Blob remake and Come And Find Me starring Aaron Paul and Annabelle Wallis.