An adaptation of the Karen Dionne bestseller The Marsh King's Daughter is currently filming in Canada, with Neil Burger (Limitless, Divergent) directing and Daisy Ridley (the Star Wars sequel trilogy) taking on the title role. With cameras rolling, the names of five of Ridley's co-stars have been announced. They are Garrett Hedlund (TRON: Legacy), Ben Mendelsohn (Captain Marvel), Caren Pistorius (Unhinged), Gil Birmingham (Yellowstone), and Brooklynn Prince (The Turning).
Scripted by Mark L. Smith (The Revenant) and Elle Smith (earning her first screenwriting credit), the psychological thriller follows
a woman (Ridley) living a seemingly ordinary life with her husband and young daughter but hiding a dark secret within: that her father is the infamous “Marsh King,” the man who kept Helena and her mother captive in the wilderness for years. Helena is forced to face her demons when her father unexpectedly escapes from prison. Knowing that he will hunt for her and her family, Helena must find the strength to confront her past and the man she once idolized.
Black Bear Pictures is fully financing the project, and the company's Teddy Schwarzman, Keith Redmon, and Mark L. Smith are producing. Black Bear's Michael Heimler and Syndicate Entertainment's Cliff Roberts and Charles Miller serve as executive producers. STXfilms will be handling distribution in the U.S., the U.K., Ireland, and India.
The source novel (buy a copy HERE) was released in 2017 and has the following description:
Helena Pelletier has a loving husband, two beautiful daughters, and a business that fills her days. But she also has a secret: she is the product of an abduction. Her mother was kidnapped as a teenager by her father and kept in a remote cabin in the marshlands of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Helena, born two years after the abduction, loved her home in nature, and despite her father’s sometimes brutal behavior, she loved him, too… until she learned precisely how savage he could be.
More than twenty years later, she has buried her past so soundly that even her husband doesn’t know the truth. But now her father has killed two guards, escaped from prison, and disappeared into the marsh. The police begin a manhunt, but Helena knows they don’t stand a chance. Knows that only one person has the skills to find the survivalist the world calls the Marsh King — because only one person was ever trained by him: his daughter.
I haven't read the novel, but the story definitely sounds interesting.
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