Movies
[AFM ’13] First Look At Charlize Theron In ‘Dark Places’
Sharing the first ever image, Producer and co-financier Exclusive Media has completed major sales on Dark Places, the film adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s best-selling novel of the same title starring Oscar winning actress Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Chloë Grace Moretz, Emmy Award nominated actress Christina Hendricks and Drea de Matteo.
“Dark Places tells the story of Libby Day, a woman who, at the age of 7, survives the massacre of her family and testifies against her brother as the murderer. Twenty-five years later, a group obsessed with solving notorious crimes confronts her with questions about the horrific event.”
Dark Places was published in 2009 and was listed on the New York Times Best Seller List for hardcover fiction for two consecutive weeks. The book was also shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and won the Dark Scribe Magazine Black Quill Award for Dark Genre Novel of the Year. Gillian Flynn is one of the most recent critically acclaimed suspense writers and her recent novel, Gone Girl, spent eight weeks at No. 1 on the hardcover fiction best-seller list of The New York Times, and has sold more than two million copies in print and digital formats.
Currently in post-production, Exclusive Media is debuting first footage from Dark Places at AFM.
All rights deal were completed with Mars in France, Remstar in Canada, CCC in Japan, Svensk in Scandinavia, Ascot Elite in Switzerland, Nu Metro in South Africa, Odeon in Greece, Sam Films in Iceland, Tanweer in Turkey, India and Pakistan, Tandem in Bulgaria, SOLD in Eastern Europe, Discovery in Croatia/Slovenia/Serbia, AQS in the Czech Republic, Prorom in Hungary and Romania, Monolith in Poland, West in Russia/the Baltic States, Noori in South Korea, and United King in Israel.
Exclusive Media also completed deals with IDC in Latin America, Front Row in the Middle East, PT Amero in Indonesia, Universal Excel in Malaysia, Captive in the Philippines, Intercontinental in Hong Kong, M Pictures in Thailand, Noori / Megastar in Vietnam, Cathay in Singapore, CMC in Taiwan, Fox/Star for SEAsian TV and Jaguar for planes/ships.
Written and directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner (Sara’s Key), Dark Places is co-financed by Exclusive Media and Cuatro Plus Films. Exclusive Media is producing with Stephane Marsil of Hugo Films, Charlize Theron’s Denver and Delilah Productions partners Beth Kono and AJ Dix; and Mandalay’s Cathy Schulman and Matt Rhodes. Exclusive Media’s Matt Jackson is producing, with the company’s Guy East, Nigel Sinclair, Tobin Armbrust and Alex Brunner Executive Producing. Peter Safran is also serving as an Executive Producer.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
You must be logged in to post a comment.