Written by Matt Grobar, Deadline
Recent double Emmy nominee Sydney Sweeney (Euphoria) is reteaming with The Voyeurs director for Immaculate, a new psychological horror that Mohan will direct for Black Bear Pictures. The actress developed the project with producer David Bernad (The Mule, The White Lotus), following their highly successful collaboration on HBO’s Emmy-winning satire The White Lotus.
The film written by Andrew Lobel follows Cecilia (Sweeney), a woman of devout faith who is offered a fulfilling new role at an illustrious Italian convent. Her warm welcome to the picture-perfect Italian countryside is soon interrupted as it becomes clearer to Cecilia that her new home harbors some dark and horrifying secrets.
Production kicks off in January, with Sweeney and Jonathan Davino producing for Fifty-Fifty Films, alongside Bernad and Black Bear Pictures’ Teddy Schwarzman and Michael Heimler. Black Bear’s John Friedberg and Christopher Casanova will exec produce alongside Will Greenfield (Euphoria).
Black Bear will fully finance Immaculate, with Black Bear International handling international sales and introducing the picture to buyers at AFM 2022 alongside CAA and Paradigm, which are handling domestic rights.
One of the most in-demand actresses in town, Sweeney this year landed her first pair of Emmy nominations for her work on The White Lotus and HBO’s smash teen drama series, Euphoria. The actress has previously appeared on series including Sharp Objects and The Handmaid’s Tale, among others. Notable film credits include The Voyeurs and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The actress will next be seen in Tony Tost’s National Anthem and Sony’s Marvel pic Madame Web. Other projects on her stacked dance card include Sony’s Barbarella reboot, Universal’s adaptation of Marcus Kliewer’s short story “The Caretaker” and a take on Madison Lawson’s novel The Registraton in development at Sony.
Mohan wrote and directed Amazon Studios’ erotic thriller The Voyeurs, which had Sweeney starring opposite Justice Smith. He also created and exec produced the Netflix Original Everything Sucks!, prior to that writing and directing award-winning indie features and shorts including Pink Grapefruit, Save the Date and Ex-Sex, all of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
An Emmy winner for this year’s Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series The White Lotus, Bernad recently exec produced the series’ second season, which premieres on HBO on October 30. He also exec produced HBO’s upcoming limited series The White House Plumbers and is producing an untitled Christmas comedy at Lionsgate, having previously exec produced the series Superstore, The Bold Type and Enlightened. Bernad’s feature credits include Bad Trip for Netflix and The Mule for Warner Bros.
Founded in 2011 by Teddy Schwarzman, Black Bear’s upcoming slate includes Craig Gillespie’s Dumb Money starring Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Sebastian Stan, Pete Davidson and Shailene Woodley; Neil Burger’s psychological thriller The Marsh King’s Daughter starring Daisy Ridley for STX; the Netflix feature Nyad, directed by Academy Award winners Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin and starring Annette Bening and Jodie Foster; Amazon’s romantic comedy Somebody I Used to Know from Dave Franco and starring Alison Brie; and Scott Frank’s newest limited series Monsieur Spade, starring Clive Owen, which is currently in production and will be released by AMC in North America. Adam Reamer will design the production.
Sweeney is represented by Paradigm and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller; Mohan by WME and Brecheen Feldman Breimer; Lobel by Lit Entertainment Group; Bernad by CAA and Sloane, Offer, Weber & Dern; and Greenfield by APA.