After a string of indie dramas in Freeheld, Tallulah, and Into the Forest, Ellen Page has landed another one. She'll star alongside Kate Mara in Mercy, a movie that has the death penalty as its core issue. Page stars as Lucy, a woman whose father is on death row, which causes problems when she falls in love with Mercy, who is on the opposite end of that political cause. Tali Shalom Ezer (Princess) will direct with Amy Seimetz, Pablo Schreiber and Elias Koteas co-starring. [Variety]
Long-developing horror film The Bringing, which once had Nicolas Winding Refn eyeing the project, has found its first star. THR reports Michael Pena will lead the film which has had Jeremy Lovering (Sherlock) attached to direct for a couple of years. The film is loosely based on the true story of Elisa Lam, who in 2013 was acting strangely in the Cecil Hotel elevator mere hours before she was found dead in the water tanks on the roof. The Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles is the place where serial killers such as Richard Ramirez and Jack Unterweger lived briefly, and is reportedly one of the final places The Black Dahlia was seen alive. Kevin Kolsch and Dennis Widmyer, writers of the horror film Starry Eyes, wrote the most recent script. Pena will play a man investigating the woman's death. He'll be seen next in War on Everyone opposite Alexander Skarsgard, and will be returning for Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp.
