Greta Bellamacina will star in “Thomasina,” an upcoming horror movie from Jaclyn Bethany. Rileigh McDonald (“The Sinner”) has also signed on for the movie, which is set in the underbelly of L.A.
Director and actress Bellamacina has been in the news at Cannes after being refused entry to the Marche with her baby son, then being told she needed to pay an accreditation fee for the infant, a procedure that would take 48 hours to process. The organizers said there was a mix-up on the ground and that it had fixed the situation, but it was an embarrassing incident at a moment when gender equality is firmly in the spotlight.
The “Thomasina” announcement and casting is more regular Cannes news. McDonald, who has been starring in “Matilda” on Broadway, plays the titular character in the picture, a mysterious, down-on-her-luck teenager whose life begins to spin out of control after her mother’s murder. Bellamacina plays her sister.
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For Bethany, the film comes after “Indigo Valley,” about a honeymoon trek in the Icelandic wilderness, which is currently in post-production. It is a U.S.-U.K.-Icelandic co-production announced at the AFM. It stars Bellamacina, as well as Rosie Day.
Bethany is at Cannes with “Thomasina” as well as another new project, “Rehearsal,” about a woman staring in an Off-Broadway play, who finds that the role becomes strangely interconnected with her personal life.
Bellamacina also has her directorial debut, “Hurt by Paradise,” screening at the market. She co-wrote the movie, about the friendship between a struggling poet and single mother and her babysitter. Robert Montgomery produces, and the cast includes Bellamacina and her co-writer Sadie Brown, Anna Brewster, Tanya Burr, Nicholas Rogue, Jazzy De Lisser, and Jamie Winstone.
Bellamacina is repped by Tavistock Wood, and McDonald by ATN Entertainment and Take 3 Talent.