Actress Karen Gillan is set to make her feature directorial debut with the female-driven “Tupperware Party.” The news was announced along with the launch of Mt. Hollywood Films, a development and production company with a mission of “producing high-quality, commercially viable projects while creating high-level opportunities for women and minorities in the entertainment industry.”
The Scotland-born Gillan starred as Amelia Pond in the BBC’s “Doctor Who,” and joined the Marvel cinematic universe as female villain Nebula in “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
“Tupperware Party” will mark Mt. Hollywood’s first project. Gillan wrote the script and will direct and star in the film, which will shoot in her native Scotland beginning in January.
Gillan has previously written and directed two short films, “Coward” and “Conventional,” as well as a segment for “Fun Size Horror: Volume Two.”
“With Karen Gillan’s myriad talents as a writer-director and her rising international popularity, we are thrilled that ‘Tupperware Party’ will be Mt. Hollywood’s first project,” offered Mt. Hollywood CEO Albert Gersten.
Mt. Hollywood has laid out a model of producing five-picture film slates of mid-budget projects in the $10–40 million range which are expected to complete production during a 12- to 18-month period. They’re focusing on popular, mass-market genres, such as action, horror, and science fiction, with one specialty/art film per slate. No description for “Tupperware Party” has been released just yet, so we’re not sure which genre it falls into.
On the company’s focus on including women and minorities in key filmmaking roles, such as writing, directing, and producing, Mt. Hollywood President R. Andru Davies said, “We believe this is a substantial opportunity to engage a very talented and underutilized pool of talent, collaborating on films they’re excited about making.”
Next up on their slate for 2017 is the female-driven action film “Texas Rangers: Z-Unit,” following “the last of the fabled Texas Rangers who must invade a devastated Houston to arrest one of their own who has been conducting outlawed genetic experiments.”
Mt. Hollywood will initially focus on the theatrical film market, with plans to broaden into television in mid-2017.
