EXCLUSIVE: Lily James, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Himesh Patel are set to star in Providence, a comedy from Dylan Sellers and Chris Parker’s Limelight and David Boies and Zack Schiller’s Boies Schiller Entertainment. Limelight and BSE will fully finance and produce, along with Shannon Houchins’ Hideout Pictures with Potsy Ponciroli directing. Michael Vukadinovich penned the script.
The story follows the eclectic residents of a small, picturesque island town who must navigate a sensational murder and the discovery of a million dollars as a series of increasingly bad decisions upends the once-peaceful community. Principal photography begins this week in North Carolina.
Sellers, Parker, Hutchins, Schiller and Boies will produce, with Vukadinovich, Tyler Zacharia, Sam Slater, Phil Keefe and Dane Eckerle executive producing. CJ Barbato will co-produce. Ponciroli recent collaboration with Hideout include OldHenry, which has been a critic’s darling since its premiere at Venice. Verve Ventures and UTA are co-repping the sale of the project.
James is coming off some of the best reviews of her career as Pamela Anderson in the Hulu limited series Pam&Tommy, which was also produced by Limelight. She also recently was seen in Netflix’s The Dig.
Gordon-Levitt is also coming off strong reviews for his portrayal of Uber founder Travis Kalanick in the Showtime anthology series superpumped. Next up he has the Peacock series PokerFace from Rian Johnson and will voice Jiminy Cricket in Disney’s live-action adaptation of Pinocchio.
Patel is best known for his star-making role in Yesterday, and his recent credits also include Tenet and Don’t Look Up.
Besides directing OldHenry, Ponciroli is an established commercial and music video director who formed Hideout Pictures with Houchins, and went on to co-create Still The King for Viacom.
Known for his original specs, Vukadinovich is behind the celebrated Black List script The Secret Ingredients Of Rocket Cola and The Three Misfortunes of Geppetto. Currently, he is also writing View Master for Mattel and Paramount Pictures with James Wan attached to direct, and Aliester Arcane for New Republic Pictures with Jim Carrey starring and attached to produce.
This collaboration marks Boies Schiller and Limelight’s sixth recent project together. Upcoming films include the Eva Longoria-starrer Aristotle and Dante and moving on, a comedy written and directed by Paul Weitz, starring Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda. The companies also have worked together on the upcoming Spanish-language comedy when i’m young, which is planned for a theatrical release through Lionsgate this year, and the Naomi Watts thriller The Desperate Hour as well as Netflix’s The Starling with Melissa McCarthy.
James is represented by UTA and Tavistock-Wood, Gordon-Levitt is represented by WME and attorneys Kimberly Jaime & Karl Austen. Patel is represented by WME, 42 and Gregory Slewett. Hideout is repped by Verve. Vukadinovich is repped by Verve, Industry Entertainment and attorney Robert Goldman. Ponciroli is repped by Verve, Thruline Entertainment and attorney Lev Ginsburg.