EXCLUSIVE: As production of Studiocanal and The Picture Company’s horror thriller Baghead begins, Deadline has learned that War Horse actor Jeremy Irvine, Top of the Lake Emmy nominee Peter Mullan, You actress Saffron Burrows, and Netflix Dark actress Julika Jenkins have joined the feature alongside previously announced Ruby Barker and Freya Allan.
Baghead is adapted from the festival fave short film of the same name and will be directed by Alberto Corredor who also directed the short. Christina Pamies and Bryce McGuire wrote the screenplay. Baghead follows the enigmatic Baghead, a diminutive wrinkled up person who is able to manifest the dead and bring them back to our world for brief periods of time. People seek out the medium to reconnect with lost loved ones. Once in contact with Baghead however, the title character’s true powers and intentions are revealed and there is a high price to pay for its contact with the deceased. Barker portrays a young woman who must face off with Baghead and put a stop to its maniacal evil at all costs.
The Picture Company partners Alex Heineman & Andrew Rona are producing under their deal at Studiocanal. Vertigo’s Roy Lee is serving as EP along with Alibi’s Jake Wagner. Corredor and Lorcan Reilly, the duo who created the short, will also EP. Rona and Heineman also produced the short film transfer Come Play at Amblin which Jacob Chase directed. Studiocanal’s Ron Halpern, Shana Eddy and Rachel Henchosberg are overseeing Baghead.
Irvine will have a turn in the upcoming DC Green Lantern series, stars in Terence Davies’ Benediction, and movies The Professor and the Madman, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, The Woman in Black 2, Steven Spielberg’s War Horse, and the Nicole Kidman movie The Railway Man. He is repped by Independent Talent Group, UTA and Schreck Rose Dapello Adams Berlin & Dunham.
Mullan stars in the upcoming Amazon Lord of the Rings series, as well as Barry Jenkins’ The Underground Railroad, as James Delos in HBO’s Westworld, and as Jacob Snell in Netflix’s Ozark series. He received a Miniseries supporting actor nomination for his turn in Top of the Lake. Mullan is repped by Markham, Froggatt & Irwin.
Burrows stars on Netflix’s You as Dottie Quinn, which just receive a fourth season renewal, and has starred on such series as Mozart in the Jungle, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and features The Bank Job, Troy, Deep Blue Sea, Hotel, and Peter Pan. She is represented by The Artists Partnership, ICM, Berwick & Kovacik, and Yorn, Barnes, Levine, Krintzman, Rubenstein, Kohner, Endlich & Gellman.
German born actress Jenkins stars as Claudia Tiedemann in Dark and also stars in Epix’s Berlin Station, Mittagsstunde and Un homme et son chien opposite Jean-Paul Belmondo. She is repped by Funke & Stertz GMBH.
Baghead adds to a host of projects The Picture Company has with Studiocanal including Gunpowder Milkshake which premieres on Netflix this July and the Liam Neeson thriller Retribution which is currently shooting in Berlin. They also just acquired the podcast Shipworm in an auction for a feature adaptation.
