Cold Iron's CEO Miranda Bailey
and Amanda Marshall are producing the film, along with Halee Bernard
and Higgins. Anthony Ciardelli and The Film Arcade's Jason Beck will
serve as Executive Producers. ICM Partners is representing the film,
which starts principal photography this week in Montana.
A neo-Western thriller set in the bleak winter landscape of the Mountain West, God's Country stars
Newton as a college professor living on her own at the edge of the
national forest. One day she confronts two hunters trespassing on her
land, triggering a battle of wills with dangerous ramifications.
Screenwriter Shaye Ogbonna
adapted the script with Higgins from the short story "Winter Light" by
James Lee Burke. Burke is The New York Times bestselling author of the
Dave Robicheaux detective series and numerous other novels. He has
received two Edgar Awards and the Grand Master Award from the Mystery
Writers of America, as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts
in Fiction and a nomination for the Pulitzer Prize. Burke's fortieth
novel will be released this year.
"Julian and Shaye's radical
new take on James Lee Burke's story is a nuanced response to the times
in which we live," said Bailey. "We are thrilled to be working on this
powerful film that puts Thandie's remarkable acting talent front and
center."
Julian Higgins is a Los
Angeles-based writer-director whose short films have screened at over a
hundred festivals around the globe and won dozens of prizes, including
the gold medal Student Academy Award® and two Student Emmy® awards for
his AFI thesis film, Thief. His most recent short, Winter Light,
was a top-ten finalist for the 2016 Academy Award® for Best Live Action
Short. Higgins made his television directorial debut with one of the
final episodes of "House," and has since executive produced and directed
Seasons 2 & 3 of the anthology drama series "Guidance," streaming
on Hulu. Higgins is represented by Good Fear Content.
Newton stars on HBO's
critically acclaimed series "Westworld" for which she won the 2019 Emmy
Award for "Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series," and was nominated
for back to back Golden Globe Awards as well as two SAG
Awards. Additionally, she is well known for the Academy Award®-winning
Best Picture, Crash, for which she received the BAFTA for "Best
Actress in a Supporting Role" and a Screen Actors Guild Award for
"Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture." Newton starred
as the title character in Jonathan Demme's Beloved, opposite Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 2, alongside Will Smith in The Pursuit of Happyness, as well as Chiwetel Ejiofor in Half a Yellow Sun. Other film credits include Ron Howard's Solo: A Star Wars Story, Tyler Perry's Good Deeds and For Colored Girls opposite Whoopi Goldberg, the Merchant-Ivory picture Jefferson In Paris, and Oliver Stone's W. Newton will next be seen starring in Lisa Joy's Reminiscene opposite Hugh Jackman for Warner Bros. She is represented by Untitled Entertainment, WME and Independent Talent Group.
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