Oscar winner Olivia Colman is set to star as a fisherwoman and Dev Patel as her inanimate made-to-order husband in the twisted romance pic Wicker.
Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson will direct the indie from a script they adapted based on a short story, The Wicker Husband, by Ursula Wills-Jones. Topic Studios and Tango will finance and produce Wicker, with the cameras set to start rolling next year.
Colman will play a smelly and ridiculed fisherwoman in a seaside village where, fed up with small-minded neighbors, she commissions herself a husband to be made from wicker, who is played by Patel. In an otherwise conservative town, their unconventional romance sparks outrage, jealousy and chaos, the producers say in their film synopsis.
Black Bear Pictures will open international sales for Wicker in the American Film Market, while CAA Media Finance and UTA Independent Film Group will handle sales on the U.S. rights.
The producer credits for Wicker will be shared by Colman, Ed Sinclair and Tom Carver from South of The River, David Michod and Brad Zimmerman for Yoki, and Justin Lothrop and Brent Stiefel for Votiv, which originated and financed the film’s development.
Colman won an Oscar for her role in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite. Her other film credits include Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter; Florian Zeller’s The Father and Paddy Considine’s Tyrannosaur. Her TV credits include Heartstopper, Landscapers, The Crown, Fleabag, The Night Manager and Broadchurch.
Patel is best known for his role in the Oscar-winning film, Slumdog Millionaire. His other big-screen credits include The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel films, The Green Knight, The Personal History of David Copperfield and Lion, for which he received an Oscar nomination.
Fischer and Eleanor Wilson directed Save Yourselves!, which they also co-wrote.
