Deadline is reporting that Oscar winner Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl, Ex Machina, Jason Bourne) will take the lead role in The Marsh King’s Daughter, a thriller based on the bestselling 2017 novel by Karen Dionne. Oscar-nominated director Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game, Passengers) will helm the picture from a screenplay by Elle Smith and Mark L. Smith (The Revenant, Overlord).
The novel tells the story of Helena Petterier (Vikander), whose idyllic life is shattered when she learns the man who fathered her and held her and her mother hostage in a swamp for 12 years has escaped prison. In order to protect her own husband and daughter, Helena decides to take matters into her own hands and hunt her father down.
Black Bear Pictures will finance the film, with Teddy Schwarzman, Keith Redmon, Tyldum and Mark L. Smith producing alongside Anonymous Content’s Bard Dorros and Vikander as executive producers. STXinternational has international distribution rights and will distribute The Marsh King’s Daughter in the UK and Ireland.
“The Marsh King’s Daughter is one of the most hypnotic thrillers you’ll ever experience, much in the vein of ‘The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’ and ‘Gone Girl,’ and who better than Morten Tyldum to direct this psychologically gripping story into a complex yet riveting tale about captivity and redemption,” said David Kosse, President of STXinternational. “We are thrilled to introduce this exceptionally compelling project from such an esteemed team of filmmakers and talent to our international partners in Berlin.”
Vikander will next be seen as Lara Croft in the Tomb Raider reboot and in Submergence opposite James McAvoy. She is about to film Ben Wheatley’s sci-fi action horror film Freak Shift opposite Armie Hammer.
(Photo Credit: Getty Images)
