EXCLUSIVE: Zoë Kravitz (The Batman) has signed on to star in Biter, a brand new darkish comedy primarily based on the quick story by Cat Individual‘s Kristen Roupenian. Kravitz may even produce by way of her firm This Is Vital, with Paperclip Ltd and Winterlight Photos co-producing.
A part of Roupenian’s debut quick story assortment You Know You Need This printed in 2019, which Winterlight dropped at Kravitz and Paperclip, “Biter” tells the story of a younger girl who fantasizes about biting certainly one of her co-workers.
Kravitz involves the mission after wrapping manufacturing on her directorial debut Pussy Island — a thriller she co-wrote starring Naomi Ackie and Channing Tatum, which was acquired by MGM in a extremely aggressive scenario. The mission additionally builds momentum for Roupenian, who noticed a Susanna Fogel-directed adaptation of her viral New Yorker quick story Cat Individual premiere to a lot buzz and dialogue at this 12 months’s Sundance Movie Pageant. A author and director for Biter haven’t but been hooked up.
“As an IP-driven firm, quick story-based tasks have grow to be an enormous a part of our slate. There may be no person who has damaged out on the earth of quick tales fairly like Kristen Roupenian,” Winterlight Photos Founder Chris Goldberg advised Deadline. “We’re so proud to be working with such an distinctive expertise and voice of her era. We have been additionally blown away by Zoë Kravitz in “Kimi” and “The Batman,” and couldn’t be extra excited to collaborate with somebody so multi-talented and rapidly rising as one of many world’s largest film stars.”
“Our crew at Paperclip Ltd is worked up to work with unimaginable skills Zoë and Kristen in entrance of and behind the digital camera on this thrilling narrative, and Chris and the crew at Winterlight are excellent artistic companions,” added firm founders Yeardley Smith and Ben Cornwell.
Kravitz most just lately starred as Selina Kyle (aka Catwoman) in Matt Reeves‘ Warner Bros blockbuster The Batman, which was nominated for 3 Academy Awards and grossed over $770M worldwide. She has additionally just lately led Steven Soderbergh’s acclaimed surveillance thriller Kimi for New Line/HBO Max in addition to Hulu’s collection Excessive Constancy, primarily based on the basic Nick Sexy novel. Named certainly one of Time’s 100 Most Influential Individuals of 2022, Kravitz was beforehand a core forged member of HBO’s Emmy-winning popular culture phenomenon Large Little Lies, primarily based on the novel by Liane Moriarty.
Roupenian’s quick story “Cat Individual” is a darkly comedic thriller that appears on the temporary relationship between 20-year-old school sophomore Margot and the somewhat-older Robert from the angle of each characters, as a way of commenting on fashionable courting and energy dynamics. Michelle Ashford tailored the script for the movie model, which stars CODA‘s Emilia Jones and Succession‘s Nicholas Braun. Roupenian additionally penned the story for Halina Reijn’s hit A24 pic Our bodies Our bodies Our bodies, has a number of options in improvement, and is at the moment at work on a novel.
Based in 2014 by Smith and Cornwell, Paperclip’s movie portfolio consists of the thrillers Possessions and Alone, the GLAAD Media Award-nominated drama Gossamer Folds, Who Are You Individuals and John Hyams’ SXSW Viewers Award winner All Sq., with Home of Playing cards’ Michael Kelly, Pamela Adlon and extra, amongst different tasks.
Winterlight Photos can also be producing an adaptation of Nita Prose’s #1 New York Instances bestseller The Maid which has been arrange at Common, together with many extra IP-driven tasks for movie and TV. The corporate has notably collaborated with authors on a variety of quick story-based tasks, together with Duane Swierczynski, whose story “Lush” is about up at Lionsgate, and Christian Cantrell, who has taken a narrative to MRC. Additionally amongst these authors is Goldberg himself, who has a function primarily based on certainly one of his quick tales in improvement at Netflix.
Kravitz is repped by CAA, Untitled Leisure and Edelstein, Laird & Sobel; Roupenian by CAA, Vary Media Companions and Jackoway Austen Tyerman.
