Elisabeth Moss, Kate Hudson, Kaia Gerber to star in thriller from Max Minghella

Emmy Award-winner Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale) will star alongside Academy Award-nominee Kate Hudson (Almost Famous, Glass Onion) and Kaia Gerber (Babylon, Bottoms) in the psychological thriller Shell, from actor/director Max Minghella (Teen Spirit).

The film is set in a near future when humanity’s cultural obsession with youth and beauty has been taken to new extremes. Black Bear International will be introducing the project to international buyers in Cannes and distributing directly in the UK and Ireland. CAA Media Finance and WME Independent are co-repping the domestic rights.

The film is being produced by Automatik’s Fred Berger (La La Land, The Autopsy of Jane Doe) and Brian Kavanaugh Jones (Insidious, Sinister), alongside Max Minghella for Blank Tape (Teen Spirit), Elisabeth Moss and Lindsey McManus for Love & Squalor Pictures (Shining Girls) and Alicia Van Couvering (Cop Car), from a script penned by Jack Stanley (Lou). Jamie Bell will Executive Produce.

In Shell, struggling actress Samantha (Elisabeth Moss) is given an opportunity to get a free trial at Shell, a pioneering health and beauty company which promises to keep its clients looking young forever. Samantha’s life and career is transformed by the treatment, and she develops a burgeoning friendship with Shell’s CEO, the ultra-glamorous Zoe Shannon (Kate Hudson). When a string of former Shell patients go missing under mysterious circumstances, including popular social media star Chloe Benson (Kaia Gerber), Samantha starts to fear she may be in danger herself.

Minghella said: “Shell packs a wildly entertaining genre movie with iconic characters and universal themes that are bound to have people talking long after they leave the theater. I’m so thrilled to be bringing it to life with this extraordinary cast and the incredible support of Black Bear International, Love & Squalor and Automatik.”

Moss said: “This is one of the most unique, entertaining and special scripts I’ve ever read and I am so honored to be a part of it as an actor and flattered that Max came to me with this character, who’s unlike anyone I’ve ever played before. Having worked with Max for years on The Handmaid’s Tale, I’m so thrilled to now be directed by him as I’m a huge fan of his as a filmmaker. We at Love & Squalor are also excited to be working alongside Automatik and Black Bear, two companies we very much admire.”

Emmy-nominee Max Minghella has established himself as a prolific talent both behind and in front of the camera. Minghella’s directorial debut, Teen Spirit starring Elle Fanning, Zlatko Buric and Rebecca Hall, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and SXSW before releasing in theaters April 2019. 

Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winner Elisabeth Moss has emerged as a star of the thriller genre after her acclaimed performances in The Invisible Man and Us, as well as an industry-leading producer with credits including The Handmaid’s Tale and Shining Girls. She is currently in production on the Steven Knight/FX limited series The Veil, on which she is also producer, and will next star opposite Michael Fassbender in the Taika Waititi film Next Goal Wins. Later this year she will begin production on the sixth and final season of the Emmy-winning series The Handmaid’s Tale on which she stars, directs and executive produces.

Joining Moss is Kate Hudson, one of Hollywood’s most globally recognizable faces. Her career began with an iconic, Oscar-nominated breakout performance in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous and she recently delivered a scene-stealing performance in Netflix’s smash global hit Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery from Rian Johnson. The cast is rounded out by globally renowned supermodel and actress Kaia Gerber, who recently appeared in Damien Chazelle’s Babylon and whose upcoming credits include Emma Seligman’s SXSW breakout, Bottoms and Apple TV+ series Palm Royale alongside Kristen Wiig and Laura Dern. 

Black Bear International’s Cannes slate includes romantic epic On Swift Horses starring Daisy Edgar Jones, Jacob Elordi and Will Poulter, and Timur Bekmambetov’s Motor City. Shell marks the third collaboration this year from Black Bear International and Automatik, after the successful launches of Longlegs starring Nicolas Cage and Fred & Ginger starring Margaret Qualley and Jamie Bell, which both sold out at the Berlin market. 

The deal was negotiated on behalf of Black Bear International by Jill Silfen.

Photo credits: Ruven Afanador/Gregory Russell/Carissa Gallo

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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