Dacre Montgomery of the Netflix series Stranger Things and Vicky Krieps of M. Night Shyamalan’s Old have landed the lead roles in director Samuel Van Grinsven’s ghost story Went Up the Hill, which is currently in pre-production and will be filming in New Zealand. If the film’s title brings to mind the nursery rhyme about Jack and Jill going up the hill, it’s for good reason. Van Grinsven and co-writer Jory Anast have even named Montgomery and Krieps’ characters Jack and Jill.
Went Up the Hill has the following synopsis:
After being abandoned as a child, Jack (Montgomery) ventures to remote New Zealand to attend the funeral of his estranged mother and there meets her grieving widow, Jill (Krieps). His search for answers becomes dangerous when his mother’s ghost returns to inhabit both Jack and Jill, using each of their bodies to speak to the other, and instigating a life-threatening nocturnal dance between the three of them.
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Deadline reports that Samantha Jennings and Kristina Ceyton of Causeway Films are producing Went Up the Hill with Vicky Pope of POP Film. Financing is being provided by New Zealand Film Commission and Screen Australia, with support from Screen CanterburyNZ, Create NSW, Spectrum Films, Stage 23, RM Sound, Head Gear Films, Fulcrum Media Finance, and the New Zealand Government’s Screen Production Grant. Vendetta Films will be distributing the film in Australia and New Zealand, and Bankside Films will be presenting the project to potential distributors in other territories at the upcoming American Film Market. CAA Media Finance co-reps the North American rights.
I’m not very familiar with Krieps’ work (and five years later, I still need to catch up on Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread, which she starred in), but I am a big fan of Montgomery’s work on Stranger Things, so I look forward to Went Up the Hill. It sounds a bit odd, but I’ll give it a chance.
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