Local production begins on horror/thriller film

PRODUCTION has begun on horror/thriller film Run Rabbit Run from Australian Emmy-nominated director Daina Reed, with shooting taking place partly on the Surf Coast.

Starring Golden Globe Award-winner Sarah Snook, Run Rabbit Run has just added two more big names to the the cast – Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts Award-winner Damon Herriman and Emmy and Screen Actors Guild-nominated Greta Scacchi, as well as newcomer Lily LaTorre as Mia.

Snook plays Sarah, a fertility doctor who has a firm understanding of the cycle of life: you are born, you live, and then you die.

But when she is forced to make sense of the increasingly strange behaviour of her young daughter Mia, Sarah must challenge her own beliefs and confront a ghost from her past.

As well as the Surf Coast, the film – expected to be released this year – will shoot at locations in South Australia.

Born in Adelaide, Snook has been nominated for several awards for her turn as Shiv Roy in HBO drama Succession, but her big screen credits include Steve Jobs, Predestination and The Dressmaker.

Herriman is best known for playing Dewey Crowe in FX crime drama Justified, and has portrayed cult leader and criminal Charles Manson twice in recent years – in Netflix series Mindhunter and in Quentin Tarantino film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Italian-Australian actress Scacchi has a four-decade career in film and TV, and her portrayal of Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna of Russia in Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny won her a Primetime Emmy Award and earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. She received a second Emmy nomination in 2006 for Broken Trail as well as her first Screen Actors Guild Award nomination.

The cast also includes Trevor Jamieson (Storm Boy, Bran Nue Dae), Neil Meville (Five Bedrooms, Brilliant Lies), Naomi Rukavina (Pawno, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child), Georgina Naidu (SeaChange, Newton’s Law), Genevieve Morris (Bloom, No Activity), Katherine Slattery (Balibo, The Secret Life of Us) and newcomer Sunny Whelan.

The script was written by acclaimed South Australian novelist Hannah Kent (Devotion, Burial Rites) from an original idea developed with Carver Films, with Anna McLeish and Sarah Shaw of Carver Films (Relic, Partisan, Snowtown) producing. Los Angeles-based XYZ Films is executive producing, financing and handling world sales.

Storyd Group’s Deanne Weir and Olivia Humphrey, and Filmology’s Jack Christian and D.J. McPherson are also executive producing.

The director of photography is Bonnie Elliott (ACS), the production designer is Vanessa Cerne, the costume designer is Marion Boyce and the make up and hair designer is Angela Conte. The casting director is Allison Meadows from Mullinars Casting, and the editor is Sean Lahiff.

The film has major production investment from XYZ and Screen Australia, in association with Film Victoria, the South Australian Film Corporation and Soundfirm. XYZ Films is handling world sales. Umbrella and Maslow Entertainment is handling Australia/NZ distribution.