Toni Collette and Odessa Young have joined writer and director Nathan Silver’s “The Prima Donna,” a twisted and darkly funny revenge thriller about two feuding opera singers and the lengths they’ll go for the limelight.
The film will reunite Collette and Young, who previously worked together on the acclaimed HBO series “The Staircase.” Cornerstone is handling international sales and distribution and will launch the project at this month’s European Film Market, which takes place alongside the Berlin Film Festival. CAA Media Finance and Anonymous Content are repping North America.
Set in Rome, the film is centered on legendary opera diva Livia Angelli (Collette), who prepares to step into the role of a lifetime, just as her estranged daughter Mimi (Young) shows up at her doorstep, right out of rehab.
An aspiring opera singer herself, Mimi summons the courage to ask Livia for the chance to be her understudy. But when she’s met by her mother’s callous dismissal, Mimi snaps and looks to exact the ultimate revenge on the woman who barely raised her.
“The Prima Donna” is a Dark Castle Entertainment and Rough House Pictures production and is produced by David Lancaster, Julian Lawitschka and Wolfgang Hammer alongside Dark Castle’s Hal Sadoff, Ethan Erwin and Alex Mace. David Gordon Green is executive producer, along with Danny McBride, Jody Hill, and Brandon James from Rough House Pictures; Toni Collette thorugh Vocab Films, and Nick Shumaker from Anonymous Content.
The project is written by “Uncertain Terms” director Silver together with C. Mason Wells, and will start shooting this summer in Rome, Italy. Dark Castle Entertainment is also financing.
Silver’s work has played festivals and venues around the world, including the New York Film Festival, Venice, Tribeca, Mar del Plata, AFI, Locarno, Rotterdam, Viennale, MoMa, Film at Lincoln Center, Museum of the Moving Image, La Cinémathèque Française, and Cineteca Nacional, Mexico.
Collette is represented by CAA, Finley Management, United Management and Kimberly Jaime at Jackoway Austen. Young is represented by CAA, Echo Lake Entertainment and Jim Gilio at Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern. Silver is represented by Anonymous Content and Sloss Law.
