Naomi Watts will star in the psychological thriller “The Wolf Hour.”
Watts will portray a woman who was once a celebrated counter-culture figure who now lives alone in her Bronx apartment, having all but cut herself off from the outside world during the notorious “Summer of Sam” in 1977. As she retreats further into isolation, an unseen tormentor begins exploiting her weaknesses. Watts will also executive produce.
“The Wolf Hour” is directed by Alistair Banks Griffin and is supported by the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program. Brian Kavanaugh-Jones and Bailey Conway Anglewicz from Automatik will produce the film along with Bradley Pilz, who will fully finance and produce under his newly formed Bradley Pilz Productions.
Production is set to start in New York City later this year. HanWay Films will oversee international sales and distribution, and will commence sales at the American Film Market, which opens on Nov. 1 in Santa Monica, Calif. CAA is handling the domestic rights.
Felipe Dieppa will also produce and his partners, Garrett Fennelly and Taryn Nagle, will exec produce for The Big Picture Company. Linda Moran of Belladonna Productions and Fred Berger of Automatik (“La La Land”) will exec produce. Gabrielle Nadig will co-executive produce.
HanWay Films managing director Gabrielle Stewart said, “‘The Wolf Hour’ delivers Hitchcockian tension in a densely layered world with a role that will exploit every fibre of Academy Award nominee Naomi Watt’s emotional range as an actor. Director Alistair Banks Griffin has a clear vision of the world he is enveloping Watts in: all of our senses are going to be stimulated.”
Watts starred in the Netflix series “Gypsy” and in the films “The Book of Henry” and “The Glass Castle” this year. She received Oscar nominations for “The Impossible” and “21 Grams.”
Watts is represented by CAA, Jason Weinberg at Untitled Entertainment, Steve Warren at Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren, Richman, Rush & Kaller, and Robin Baum at Slate PR. Griffin is represented by CAA and André Des Rochers of Gray Krauss Sandler Des Rochers LLP.
