Cannes is about so much more than the films screening — the fest is also a business hub where projects in development seek distribution and funds. As such, the fest can be counted on to introduce new titles and updates on ones already in progress. The projects hoping to make a splash this year include Jenny Gage’s adaptation of “After,” which has announced a cast, and Sidse Babett Knudsen-starrer “Wildland,” a crime thriller that marks Jeanette Nordahl’s feature debut.
Julia Goldani Telles (“The Affair”) and Hero Fiennes Tiffin (“Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince”) will topline Gage’s take on “After,” a press release announced. Based on Anna Todd’s international best-seller, “‘After’ follows the journey of self-discovery and sexual awakening of Tessa,” the project’s synopsis details. “A dedicated student, dutiful daughter, and loyal girlfriend to her high school sweetheart, Tessa enters her first year of University with grand ambitions for her future. Her guarded world opens up when she meets the dark and mysterious Hardin Scott. A brooding rebel that Tessa would typically shun, she is drawn by his magnetic energy that will change her forever.” Gage co-wrote the script with Susan McMartin (“Mr. Church”), Tamara Chestna (“The Art of More”), and Tom Betterton (“All This Panic”).
Todd first posted chapters of “After” on Wattpad, a fan fiction sharing site. The story’s popularity caused the site to crash within a week. The “bad boy” character in “After” is inspired by One Direction’s Harry Styles. Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, has since published five books in the series, which has sold tens of millions of copies worldwide.
CalMaple Films and Offspring Entertainment are teaming up on the project. CalMaple, Voltage Pictures, and Diamond Film Productions are financing.
“I am thrilled to be working with CalMaple and Offspring Entertainment to bring Anna Todd’s highly emotional story of a young love, sexual awakening, and coming of age to the screen,” Gage commented. “Julia Goldani-Telles and Hero Finnes Tiffin are amazing young actors who I am beyond excited to be working with.”
Gage made her feature debut with 2016’s “All This Panic,” a documentary following teen girls coming of age in Brooklyn. When we asked her advice for fellow female filmmakers, Gage said, “Make stories you want to see — if you do that you will always find an audience.”
Currently in pre-production, “After” is slated to begin shooting in Boston in June.
“Wildland” also centers on a young woman. The pic follows a 17-year-old girl who moves to the Danish countryside after her mother dies in a car accident. The teen moves in with her aunt and cousins. “The home is filled with love, but outside of the home, the family leads a violent and criminal life,” Variety summarizes. Ingeborg Topsoe (“The Charmer”) penned the script.
“Borgen” and “Westworld” alumna Babett Knudsen will play a “mafia ringleader.”
Bac Films and Snowglobe are joining forces on the project.
“‘Wildland’ is a story about the destructive power of family love. It is a female-driven film with mafia elements, where both the head of the family and the protagonist are women,” said Snowglobe’s Eva Jakobsen, Katrin Pors, and Mikkel Jersin.
Topsoe added, “We are excited to give our take on this violent genre making a mother’s caress more intrusive than a car-crash and childbirth more violent than a murder, as we portray the cyclical, continuation of social heritage and the loss of control.”
