Rose Glass' Saint Maud starring Morfydd Clark & Jennifer Ehle starts shooting

19 November 2018

Principal photography has begun on Saint Maud, a psychological horror film that marks the feature debut of rising star writer/director Rose Glass.

Morfydd Clark (The Personal History of David Copperfield, Love & Friendship) plays Maud, a young religious private carer who becomes dangerously fixated with saving the soul of her glamorous patient Amanda (Jennifer Ehle – Zero Dark Thirty, The Miseducation of Cameron Post).

Saint Maud is produced by debut feature producer Oliver Kassman for Escape Plan Productions, alongside Andrea Cornwell (Apostasy, Suite Francaise). The film has been supported through development and is being co-financed by Film4 and BFI (using funds from the National Lottery). The executive producers are Mary Burke for the BFI Film Fund, and Sam Lavender and Daniel Battsek for Film4. The film shoots for five weeks in North London and Scarborough. Protagonist Pictures are handling worldwide sales.

“We’re thrilled to be part of Rose’s feature debut. We worked with Rose on her Channel 4 horror short and quickly wanted to take her to feature,” says Sam Lavender, Senior Commissioning Executive, Film4. “Her vision for the film is what has brought us all along for the ride and has put chills up our spines from the start. We can’t wait to see her and her terrific cast bring this story to life.”

Rose Glass graduated from the National Film and Television School in 2014. Her graduation short film Room 55 was selected for film festivals around the world including SXSW, Palm Springs and the BFI London Film Festival. Her other short films include Juliet, made in collaboration with Giorgio Armani, and Bath Time, commissioned by Film4 as one of the broadcaster’s ‘Moments of Horror’ horror shorts in 2015, which began her relationship with Film4’s creative team. She was named a Screen International Star of Tomorrow in 2018 and was selected to take part in the Guiding Lights mentoring scheme, with whom she is being mentored by Irish writer/director Carmel Winters. She is represented by Casarotto Ramsay.

“We love working with exciting debut filmmakers like Rose Glass and with Saint Maud we are convinced she will deliver an exceptional and unsettling psychological thriller”, adds Protagonist Pictures CEO Dave Bishop.

Rose Glass comments: “We have the most phenomenal cast, led by Morfydd and Jennifer. I am so excited to be setting out on this production with such fantastic collaborators and crew!”

ABOUT PRODUCERS

Oliver Kassman founded genre-oriented Escape Plan in late 2015 and the company is currently in production on its first feature – SAINT MAUD. Escape Plan is developing a focused slate of ‘elevated’ film and television projects with partners including Film4, BBC Films, Creative Scotland, the Wellcome Trust and Fable Pictures.

Previously Oliver was Head of Production and Development at Qwerty Films for eminent Producer Michael Kuhn. There he scouted and developed many of the company’s projects, including multi- award winning and Oscar nominated FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS, on which he served as Associate Producer.

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Producer Andrea Cornwell's most recent film APOSTASY was released by Curzon Artificial Eye in July

2018. It is currently nominated for six BIFAs, and won the IWC Filmmaker Bursary Award for director Daniel Kokotajlo. Other recent projects include feature documentaries BRUCE LEE & THE OUTLAW (winner of Best International Documentary at Busan 2018) and the forthcoming SEAHORSE directed by Jeanie Finlay. Previous films include SUITE FRANCAISE, THE LAST DAYS ON MARS, MICRO MEN (BBC) and THE SCOUTING BOOK FOR BOYS.

 

ABOUT FILM4

Film4 is Channel 4 Television’s feature film division. Film4 develops and co-finances films and is known for working with the most distinctive and innovative talent in UK and international filmmaking, both new and established.

Film4 has developed and co-financed many of the most successful UK films of recent years, Academy Award®-winners such as Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Lenny Abrahamson’s Room, Alex Garland’s Ex Machina, Asif Kapadia’s box office record breaking documentary Amy, Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire and Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron Lady, in addition to critically-acclaimed award-winners such as Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here, Andrea Arnold’s American Honey, Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not

a Witch, Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster, Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner, Chris Morris’s Four Lions, Shane Meadows’ This is England, Clio Barnard’s The Selfish Giant, Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin and Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years.

Film4’s recent releases include Steve McQueen’s Widows, Mike Leigh’s Peterloo, Tinge Krishnan’s Been So Long, Bart Layton’s American Animals, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War, Lenny Abrahamson’s The Little Stranger, Iain Morris’s The Festival, Andrew Haigh’s Lean on Pete, Clio Barnard’s Dark River and Michael Pearce’s Beast. Forthcoming releases include Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite, Sebastián Lelio’s Disobedience, Stephen Merchant’s Fighting With My Family and Tom Harper’s Wild Rose. Films in production include Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield, Asif Kapadia’s Maradona, Sarah Gavron’s ‘Untitled Girls Film’, Nick Rowland’s Calm With Horses, Justin Kurzel’s True History of the Kelly Gang, Coky Giedroyc’s adaptation of Caitlin Moran’s How To Build a Girl, Gregor Jordan’s Dirt Music, Ben Sharrock’s Limbo, Cathy Brady’s Wildfire and Chaplin from Peter Middleton and James Spinney.

For further information please visit www.film4productions.com.

About the BFI

The BFI Film Fund supports world-class UK filmmaking from talent and film development, through to production and audience development across exhibition, distribution and international sales, investing over £50 million of National Lottery funding a year.

Recent releases and highly anticipated films backed by the BFI include Mike Leigh’s Peterloo which received its UK premiere at the 62nd BFI London Film Festival and Cold War which brought Pawel Pawlikowski the Best Director award at this year’s Cannes. Both screened at the Toronto International Film Festival alongside Wash Westmoreland’s Colette, William McGregor’s Gwen, Claire Denis’ High Life, Peter Strickland’s In Fabric, Carol Morley’s Out of Blue, Annabel Jankel’s Tell

It to the Bees, Tom Harper’s Wild Rose, IWC Schaffhausen award-winner Richard Billingham’s Ray & Liz, and Amma Asante’s Where Hands Touch. In the pipeline for release are Victor Kossakovksy’s Aquarela; Brian Welsh’s Beats; Scott Graham’s Born to Run; Chiwetel Ejiofor’s The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind; Peter Middleton and James Spinney’s Chaplin; Chris Morris Untitled Project; Neil Biswas’s Darkness Visible; Jason Barker’s A Deal with the Universe;  Andrew Hulme’s The Devil Outside; Sacha Polak’s Dirty God; Craig Roberts’ Eternal Beauty; Thomas Clay’s Fanny Lye Deliver’d; Iain Cunningham’s Irene’s Ghost; Gabrielle Brady’s Island of the Hungry Ghosts; Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn’s Normal People;; Hong Khaou’s Monsoon; Steve McLean’s Postcards from London; Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You; Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir; Chino Moya’s Undergods andTim Travers Hawkins’ XY Chelsea; Recent releases include Tinge Krishnan’s Been So Long; Jim Hosking’s An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn; Matthew Jones’ The Man from Mo’ Wax; Haifaa Al-Mansour’s Mary Shelley; Sean McAllister’s A Northern Soul; Matthew Holness’ Possum; and Idris Elba’s Yardie.

The BFI is the lead organisation for film in the UK with the ambition to create a flourishing film environment in which innovation, opportunity and creativity can thrive by:

•    Connecting audiences to the widest choice of UK and World cinema

•    Preserving and restoring the most significant film collection in the world for today and future generations

•    Championing emerging and world class filmmakers in the UK - investing in creative, distinctive and entertaining work

•    Promoting UK film and talent to the world

•    Growing the next generation of film makers and audiences

 

ABOUT PROTAGONIST PICTURES

Protagonist Pictures is an international sales, finance, and production company which has a proven track record in outstanding films and commercial successes. Based in the UK, the company handles films from around the world, always maintaining a strong focus on filmmakers with exceptional vision and storytelling skills.

Current successes on release around the world include Cannes 2018 Best Director winner Cold War from Academy Award winner Pawel Pawlikowski, the 2017 Directors’ Fortnight Art Cinema Award Winner The Rider from Chloé Zhao, Sundance 2018 Official Selection The Kindergarten Teacher, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and Gael Garcia Bernal, and Toronto International Film Festival 2017

Official Selection Beast from writer/director Michael Pearce.

In post-production are The Souvenir from Executive Producer Martin Scorsese and directed by Joanna Hogg, zombie comedy Little Monsters starring Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o and Josh Gad, Juan Cabral’s Two/One starring Boyd Holbrook and Beau Bridges, How to Build a Girl, based on the novel by Caitlin Moran and starring Beanie Feldstein and Alfie Allen, Hope Gap starring

Annette Bening and Bill Nighy, Corporate Animals, starring Demi Moore and Ed Helms, and My Zoe, from writer/director Julie Delpy, starring alongside Daniel Brühl and Gemma Arterton.

In production are Monday, starring Sebastian Stan and Denise Gough, and The Education of Fredrick Fitzell, starring Dylan O’Brien and Maika Monroe; and forthcoming productions include The Cradle, starring Jack O’Connell and Lily Collins, and The Sound of Philadelphia, with Matthias Schoenaerts, Garrett Hedlund and Scoot McNairy, and Drake Doremus’ latest, starring Shailene Woodley, Jamie Dornan and Sebastian Stan.