Movies
Maria Bakalova to Star in Christmas Eve Suspense Thriller ‘No Way Off’
Bodies Bodies Bodies lead Maria Bakalova is set to star alongside Peter Mullan (Baghead) in the single-location suspense thriller No Way Off, per Variety. The location? A bus that is driving into the middle of nowhere on Christmas Eve.
No Way Off, written by Gaby Hull, will be directed by Brian Kelly (“Downton Abbey,” “Dracula”).
Bakalova will play Laura, a tired young mother traveling alone with her infant son on Christmas Eve. “When the bus pulls up, its driver is wearing a latex Santa mask. Laura climbs aboard, collapsing into her seat. Exhausted and stressed, she soon falls asleep. When Laura wakes, night has fallen. The bus is now hurtling along a motorway, miles off its usual route. Apart from the sleeping baby, she is the only passenger left on board. She can’t outrun the driver – she’ll have to outsmart him.“
“My dreams have come true. No Way Off has a brilliant cast and a killer script, I can’t wait to enjoy the ride,“ said Kelly.
The suspense thriller is said to be inspired by single-location thrillers like The Shallows, Crawl, and Buried. Being trapped on a moving bus with a creepy man in a Santa Suit surely has us intrigued.
It’s not the only genre project in the works from Maria Bakalova; the actor was recently announced to star in the Matt Reeves-produced God’s Country from Sputnik director Egor Abramenko.
Matthew James Wilkinson (Yesterday) is producing for his Stigma Films banner, and the film is being launched this week to international buyers at AFM. Stay tuned for additional news.
From director David Ayer (Suicide Squad, Fury), Heart of the Beast will hit theaters on September 25 from Paramount Pictures, and GQ shares first look images this week.
In the film, a former Army Special Forces soldier and his retired combat dog attempt to return to civilization after suffering a catastrophic accident deep in the Alaskan wilderness.
Brad Pitt stars in the survival thriller Heart of the Beast, with J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) and Anna Lambe (“True Detective: Night Country”) also starring.
Cameron Alexander wrote the screenplay for Heart of the Beast. Academy Award winner Mauro Fiore (Avatar, Spider-Man: No Way Home) serves as director of photography.
“I’ll just be really honest: it made me cry,” Ayer tells GQ of the script. “Reading the script, it’s like a tone poem, in a sense. It’s so sparse—just a guy, a dog, mountains, and the calamities and triumphs that unfold, but what’s fascinating about the script is they’re constantly rescuing each other. It’s not like a guy and his pet—they felt like co-equals in this story. Brad wanted to be No. 2 on the call sheet, and rightly so. There was just something profound in the script. It felt like a study in grief, in healing, and of the human heart. So I had to do it.”
Ayer promises, “Don’t worry, the dog lives.”
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