Sophie Turner’s independent drama “Josie” has been selected as the opening night film for the inaugural Mammoth Film Festival on Feb. 8, Variety has learned exclusively.
The film, formerly titled “Huntsville,” also stars Dylan McDermott and Jack Kilmer. It’s directed by Eric England from a screenplay by Anthony Ragnone II. The script, which made the 2014 Black List, centers on a solitary man living a dull existence in the sleepy town. He raises eyebrows when he develops a questionable relationship with a recently transplanted high school student.
Turner is best known for her role as Sansa Stark in “Game of Thrones.” She portrayed Jean Grey in “X-Men: Apocalypse.”
The festival, which is being billed as a mini-Sundance, runs from Feb. 8 to Feb. 11 and will feature other indie world premieres, studio films, shorts, and episodics.
“It’s a real honor to have such a prestigious title as ‘Josie’ open our first ever Mammoth Film Festival,” said founder Tanner Beard. “Despite this being our inaugural event, we’re incredibly proud that our festival will be able to compete on a global scale with our world premieres and attractive titles that distributors are sure to be excited about.”
Beard is an executive producer of Terrence Malick’s “Song to Song,” “Voyage of Time,” and “Knight of Cups.” The board members include Jay Cohen from Gersh and Ryan Black from Grindstone/Lionsgate. Beard, Tomik Mansoori, Theo Dumont, and Daniel Sol founded the festival.
“Josie” is produced by Luisa Iskin, Johnny Wunder, Jeff Kalligheri, and Kevin Matusow. The exec producers are Carissa Buffel, Steven Chester Prince, Fouad Mikati, Candice Abela, Karam Abulhusn, Stephen Bowen, Ash Sarohia, and Lauren Russell. The film was produced by the Coalition Group in association with the Traveling Picture Show Company, Waterstone Entertainment, and Boo Pictures.
