Earlier this year it was reported that Kevin James will star as a "merciless" convict who invades a lake home in the action thriller Becky, the latest film from directors Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion (Bushwick, Cooties). The home invasion movie will pit James against Lulu Wilson as the teenage title character, and now Joel McHale has joined the cast as Wilson's father, along with additional cast members Amanda Brugel and Robert Maillet.
Press Release: LOS ANGELES (August 27, 2019) – Highland Film Group announced today that Emmy® nominated Joel McHale (“Community”, “Card Sharks”), Amanda Brugel (“The Handmaid’s Tale”, Room) and Robert Maillet (Sherlock Holmes, Pacific Rim) have joined Kevin James (Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Grown Ups) and Lulu Wilson (Annabelle: Creation, “The Haunting of Hill House”) in Becky. From directors Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion (Bushwick, Cooties), the action-thriller is produced by Jordan Yale Levine, Jordan Beckerman and Russ Posternak of Yale Productions alongside Raphael Margules and J.D. Lifshitz of BoulderLight Pictures. Highland Film Group is handling international sales, which will continue at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival. UTA Independent Film Group is handling domestic rights.
The film follows spunky, rebellious 14-year-old Becky (Wilson) as she is brought to a weekend getaway at a lake house by her father Jeff (McHale) in an effort to try to reconnect after her mother’s death. The trip immediately takes a turn for the worse when a group of convicts on the run, led by the merciless Dominick (James), suddenly invade the lake house. Becky, not daddy’s little girl anymore, decides to take matters into her own hands in this high-octane action-thriller described as John Wick with a 14-year-old girl.
Becky is the third feature directed by Milott and Murnion, following their Sundance and Cannes favorite Bushwick, starring Brittany Snow and Dave Bautista, and their debut feature Cooties, starring Elijah Wood and Rainn Wilson.
McHale is best known for his role in the NBC sitcom “Community,” for which he received two Critics Choice Award nominations. He has appeared in Sam Levinson’s Assassination Nation, Blended starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore and Ted starring Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis and Seth McFarlane. McHale previously hosted E!’s “The Soup” which garnered him an Emmy® nomination and recently hosted Netflix’s “The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale.” He can currently be seen as the host as ABC’s revival of the game show “Card Sharks.”
Brugel’s credits include critically acclaimed Hulu series “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and the award-winning Room. She has appeared in recent comedies “Kim’s Convenience” and “Workin’ Moms,” and can next be seen in Sugar Daddy alongside Kelly McCormack ,The Education of Fredrick Fitzell with Hannah Gross and Maika Monroe, and TBS’s upcoming Snowpiercer series.
Maillet has appeared in blockbuster films including Twentieth Century Fox’s Deadpool 2 and Warner Bros.’ Pacific Rim and Sherlock Holmes. Recently, he appeared in Jonas Åkerlund’s Polar and the Starz series “American Gods.”
McHale is represented by United Talent Agency (UTA) and Creative Artists Agency (CAA); Brugel is repped by Parent Management and LINK Entertainment; Maillet is represented by The Characters Talent Agency.
Highland Film Group’s slate also include: Jiu Jitsu starring Nicolas Cage, Alain Moussi, Tony Jaa, Frank Grillo, Rick Yune, Marie Avgeropoulos and JuJu Chan; Persephone starring Mary-Louise Parker and Brianna Hildebrand; Karen Maine’s Yes God Yes; John Krokidas’ Tunnels starring Susan Sarandon; Vaughn Stein’s Inheritance starring Lily Collins and Simon Pegg; Marc Meyer’s thriller We Summon the Darkness starring Johnny Knoxville and Alexandra Daddario; David Stassen’s Happy Life starring Evangeline Lilly, Ike Barinholtz and Alexandra Daddario; Trauma Center starring Bruce Willis; Michael Polish’s Axis Sally starring Al Pacino; Southland starring Bella Thorne and Jake Manley; Skylines, the third chapter of the successful franchise, starring Lindsey Morgan; and Ghosts of War starring Brenton Thwaites, Theo Rossi and Skylar Astin.
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About Highland Film Group
Led by founding partners Arianne Fraser and Delphine Perrier, Highland Film Group (HFG) is an independent worldwide sales, production and film financing company. Launched in 2010, HFG has had success across a wide range of film genres and platforms, building a reputation for handling high-octane films in the action/horror/thriller space, focusing on cast, director, film maker driven content.
HFG’s diversified production and sales slate includes: Joe Carnahan’s Boss Level starring Naomi Watts and Mel Gibson; Michael Cristofer’s The Night Clerk starring Tye Sheridan, Ana de Armas and Helen Hunt; Shawn Ku’s A Score to Settle starring Nicolas Cage; Berlin, I Love You with Helen Mirren, Keira Knightley, Jim Sturgess, Mickey Rourke, Diego Luna, and Jenna Dewan Tatum; Lin Oeding’s thriller Braven starring Jason Momoa; Steven C. Miller’s action thriller Escape Plan 2: Hades starring Sylvester Stallone and Dave Bautista.
About Yale Productions
Yale Productions is an independent feature film production company lead by partners Jordan Yale Levine and Jordan Beckerman. The company was founded in 2010 by Jordan Yale Levine. In 2017, Jordan Beckerman joined the company as a full-time partner and producer, having previously worked as a film production and entertainment attorney. Yale Productions produces high-quality, filmmaker-driven features at conservative budgets, maximizing the possibility for creative and commercial success.
These films include Crypto, released by Lionsgate, starring Kurt Russell, Alexis Bledel, and Beau Knapp, After Everything, released by Good Deed, starring Maika Monroe, Jeremy Allen White, Sasha Lane, Joey Keery, and Marisa Tomei, which premiered at SXSW in 2018, IFC title King Cobra, starring James Franco, Christian Slater, Garrett Clayton, and Keegan Allen, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2016, and Jack Goes Home, released through eOne, starring Rory Culkin, Britt Robertson, and Lin Shaye, which premiered at SXSW in 2016. Recently produced films include Burn, starring Josh Hutcherson, Suki Waterhouse, and Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Separation, starring Rupert Friend, Mamie Gummer, Madeline Brewer, Violet McGraw and Brian Cox, and Bailey and Darla, starring Brittany Snow, Sam Richardson, Jordana Brewster, Vivica A. Fox, and Anna Akana. As Yale Productions continues to grow and partner with film industry leaders, it remains dedicated to creating meaningful and exciting films, which are both artistically significant and financially successful.
About BoulderLight Pictures
BoulderLight Pictures was launched in 2012 by JD Lifshitz and Raphael Margules. Their first film, the STD horror film Contracted, was a major hit for IFC Midnight that was quickly followed by a sequel. Over the following years, BoulderLight continued to grow its production arm with a number of genre films, including Dismissed, Bad Match, and New York Times Critics’ Pick Dementia. Their most recent release, fraternity horror film Pledge, premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival, and was released by IFC Midnight in January 2019. Since launching their international arm at the 2014 Cannes Marche du Film, BoulderLight has garnered relationships with some of the biggest film and media companies around the world, including Making Film Productions - one of Hong Kong's most prominent entertainment companies with whom BoulderLight has a 3 picture slate deal - and MM2 Entertainment - Singapore's leading film studio.
Later this year, BoulderLight will be releasing the scifi/horror anthology film Portals, which features segments directed by Eduardo Sanchez (The Blair Witch Project), Timo Tjahjanto (Headshot), and Liam O’Donnell (Skyline franchise). Their latest film, The Vigil, is a terrifying horror tale steeped in ancient Jewish mysticism, written and directed by Keith Thomas in his directorial debut. The Vigil will premiere as part of the highly esteemed Midnight Madness program of the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. Currently, BoulderLight is in production on the über-stylish action thriller Becky, directed by Jonathan Milott and Cary Murnion (Bushwick, Cooties) and starring Kevin James (Paul Blart franchise, King of Queens) and Lulu Wilson (Haunting of Hill House, Annabelle: Creation).
BoulderLight has multiple projects in development and pre-production. The company continues to seek inspired and imaginative storytellers from around the world in order to create innovative content for an evolving audience.
[Photo Credit: Above photo by Colleen Hayes/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank.]
Raised on a steady diet of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Derek has been fascinated with fear since he first saw ForeverWare being used on an episode of Eerie, Indiana.
When he’s not writing about horror as the Senior News Reporter for Daily Dead, Derek can be found daydreaming about the Santa Carla Boardwalk from The Lost Boys or reading Stephen King and Brian Keene novels.
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