Deadline is reporting that Mackenzie Davis has signed on to play the lead in Lorcan Finnegan’s new thriller Vivarium, produced by Fantastic Films. XYZ Films is handling sales on the at the Marché du Film in Cannes this week.
Canadian-born Davis, who starred in Irish co-production What If?, will play a young woman who, along with her fiancé, follow a strange estate agent into a new development to look at a house. The development is brand new but completely devoid of life, and when they attempt to leave they soon find that they can’t find their way out of the maze of houses.
The film is being produced by Brendan McCarthy and John McDonnell for Fantastic Films, with Belgium’s Frakas Productions co-producing, and XYZ executive producing and handling sales. It is supported by Irish Film Board.
Finnegan’s debut feature, Without Name, was released in Irish cinemas last month. You can listen here to our interview with the director.
Fantastic films are best known as the producers of acclaimed Irish genre films Let Us Prey, Wake Wood,a nd Last Days on Mars. They are currently at the Marché with three other projects; Spanish director Jaume Balaguaro’s highly anticipated Muse, which is being sold by Filmax; Dennis Bartok’s creepy Nails, which is being sold by Kaliedoscope, and Mark Sheridan’s found-footage thriller Crone Wood, which is being sold by Jinga.
Vivarium is currently set to start production in September.