HanWay Films have unveiled a first look image from Paul Schrader’s “Master Gardener,” starring Joel Edgerton and Sigourney Weaver.
“Master Gardener” tells the story of horticulturist Narvel Roth (played by Edgerton), who tends to a beautiful and historic estate owned by wealthy dowager Mrs Haverhill (Weaver). But Mrs Haverhill’s insistence that Roth employ her wayward great-niece Maya as an apprentice unexpectedly sends his life into chaos as dark secrets from his past emerge and threaten to capsize all who live and work at Gracewood Gardens. Soon, Roth finds he must choose between the two women: the dowager and her young niece.
“I was thinking about that guy, but then two women showed up,” Schrader said of the film during an appearance at the Zurich Film Festival last October. “He is having romantic relations with both, but what I liked the most is that now they [the women] can talk to each other. What would happen in ‘Taxi Driver’ if Cybill Shepherd and Jodie Foster went out to get coffee?”
Quintessa Swindell and Esai Morales also star in the film, which began shooting in Louisiana in February. Swindell (“In Treatment”) will play Maya, Mrs Haverhill’s troubled great-niece while Morales (“Ozark”) takes on the role of Roth’s witness protection officer.
HanWay Films, who previously collaborated with Schrader on Oscar Isaac-starrer “The Card Counter,” are handling international sales and distribution. North American sales are co-repped by HanWay and Schrader’s manager David Gonzales.
The drama is produced by Amanda Crittenden of KOJO Studios, Scott LaStaiti and David Gonzales.