Emile Hirsch has signed on to star in the psychological thriller Past Life which is scheduled to enter principal photography in March of next year. The film will be directed by Simeon Halligan (White Settlers, Splintered), head of Manchester’s Grimmfest International Festival of Fantastic Film, from a script written by Dean Lines and Ray Bogdanovich (Hounded, The Banishing).
Past Life centers on Jason Frey, an investigative reporter who reluctantly agrees to attend a hypnotism event with his pregnant wife Claira. Whilst under hypnosis, Jason bears witness to a murder through the eyes of a perpetrator. Haunted by what he has seen, Jason resorts to past-life regression techniques to dig into a series of cold murder cases from the 1980s, while inadvertently reawakening a psychopath’s murderous tendencies.
The film is produced by Rachel Richardson-Jones of Grimmfest Films (Habit), Pierre Romain and Susan Michels of SWE (Son Of The South), and Michael Laundon of M2 Productions (Endless). Serving executive producers are Michael Bassick (Hacksaw Ridge) for M2, Sarada McDermott (Bridgerton), Angus Finney (The Mother) and Glenn Kendrick Ackermann, Jason Piette, and Ewan Dunbar of Disrupting Influence.
Disrupting Influence will launch worldwide sales next month at AFM.
Commenting on the casting news, Disrupting Influence’s Glenn Kendrick Ackermann said: “We are absolutely thrilled to be working with Emile, on Past Life a superb actor who has proved his versatility and breadth in an array of movies … His depth as a performer will bring nuance to Jason’s complex character. We can’t think of a better actor to play the role in this brilliantly conceived thriller.”
Disrupting Influence’s current sales slate includes Mark Clark’s (Danger Coast, Ultimate Capture) shark shocker Ghost Divers filmed by a seasoned open water filming crew, LGBTQ WW2 resistance documentary Willem & Frieda, and WW2 espionage thriller Lives in Secret, starring Hugh Bonneville and Charlotte Gainsbourg, from writer-director John Hay and producer Jeremy Bolt.
