Jonathan Pryce and Nick Mohammed are set to lead the cast of Mat Whitecross’ comedy murder mystery Sleeping Lions for Mister Smith Entertainment,
Jonathan Pryce and Nick Mohammed are set to lead the cast of Mat Whitecross’ comedy murder mystery Sleeping Lions for Mister Smith Entertainment, which is launching sales at the European Film Market.
Developed and to be distributed by Sky in the UK and Ireland, the film will shoot in the UK later this year.
Written by James Roblin, Sleeping Lions is a contemporary adaptation of Cyril Hare’s 1951 novel An English Murder.
Pryce will play the dying Earl of Warbeck who summons his nearest and dearest for a final Christmas at Warbeck Hall. When a snowstorm hits, the guests are cut off from the world and an attempt is made on the life of the earl’s son, the leader of a hazardous recent political party.
The film is produced by Rupert Lloyd and Cyrus Massoudi of Atar Studios, with Fiona Neilson’s Mint Pictures. Paul Webster has an executive producer credit.
“Sleeping Lions is a gothic satire that mercilessly holds up a mirror to our deeply turbulent times and gleefully eviscerates all the conventions of the genre – a rare whodunit where you find yourself rooting for the killer,” said Whitecross.
“In the wake of films like Knives Out and Saltburn, Mat’s satirical spin on the British murder mystery is sure to speak loudly to contemporary audiences,” added Mister Smith Entertainment’s Shane Kelly.
UK filmmaker Whitecross’s first feature film, The Road To Guantánamo, co-directed with Michael Winterbottom, won Silver Bear for best director at the Berlin Film Festival in 2006. His further projects include Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, Spike Island and Oasis feature documentary Supersonic.
He is in post on Spanish-language Ídolos, a Warner Bros drama set in the world of professional motorbike racing.
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