Joel Kinnaman (The Suicide Squad films, José Padilha’s RoboCop, Apple TV’s “For All Mankind”) is set to star in The Cell, a new creature thriller from director Adam Cooper (The Avenue’s Sleeping Dogs), and writers Evan Turner (Dear David) and Ben Zazove (Sherlock Gnomes). Highland Film Group is handling worldwide rights, launching sales at AFM.
The Cell will feature Kinnaman as investigative journalist Ryan Weaver who is about to blow the whistle on a powerful pharmaceutical company. Suddenly, he wakes up imprisoned inside a secret medical testing facility where patients are isolated, drugged and subjected to disturbing experiments. Told he is dangerously ill, Ryan soon realizes the people running the facility may be far more interested in studying him than curing him. As his own body begins to mutate, Ryan soon begins searching for an escape, but what he finds in the lower levels suggests the facility is creating something far worse than the disease.
Jason Tamasco, Zak Kristofek and Keith Danko are producing for Traction (Red Right Hand, Hyde) alongside Leigh Collier (The Matchmaker’s Playbook), Greg Silverman (Shelter, Motor City) and Grant Torre (Space Cadet) for Caravan Media Services, and Matthew Bierman (Chasing Red, The Grand). Alastair Burlingham, Gary Raskin, Bjorn Hovland, Michael Rifkin and Elizabeth A. Bell are exec producers for Caravan next to Arianne Fraser and Delphine Perrier for Highland Film Group.
Principal photography is slated to begin in February 2027. Sherborne Media is providing a structured credit facility against the production rebate and incentives.
“Joel Kinnaman shines as both the sharp investigative journalist closing in on the truth and the tortured and increasingly isolated man whose best chance of escape is to embrace the terrifying changes that have taken over his body,” said Highland Film Group CEO Fraser. “We are delighted to team up again with director Adam Cooper following Sleeping Dogs on this visceral and dynamic creature thriller. We have such an accomplished group of producers who bring a wide range of perspectives to the film, and we can’t wait for cameras to roll on this fantastic project,” added Highland Film Group COO Perrier.
Cooper said, “So grateful to have Joel joining us. For a character that is in almost every frame of the film, it is a gift to have a lead actor as talented as Joel embody them, and I can’t wait to share this story with audiences.”
Traction’s Tamasco and Kristofek state, “We are so excited to be able to produce this incredible script alongside our partner in Caravan and the rest of the team. The caliber of actor in Joel joining us is a testament to Ben and Evan’s writing and the vision that Adam possesses.”
Bell added, “We couldn’t be more excited to work with an actor of Joel Kinnaman’s extraordinary talent and a director as gifted as Adam Cooper, alongside the exceptional creative team at Traction. The Cell also represents an exciting opportunity to build on our partnerships with Sherborne Media on financing and Gateway Entertainment on workforce development, bringing together the talent, resources and expertise to make this film a reality.”
Highland Film Group’s current slate also includes Andy Tennant’s comedy The Fun Lady starring Jessica Alba; Nimród Antal’s sci-fi action thriller Bluefly starring Russell Crowe and Priyanka Chopra Jonas; Lisette Feliciano’s Iron Jane starring Eiza Gonzalez and Brandon Sklenar; Neil Burger’s action thriller Barracuda starring Anthony Mackie and Dafne Keen; and Justin Chadwick’s action spy-thriller The Mark starring Jessica Alba, Tom Hopper and Elsa Pataky.
Kinnaman is repped by WME, Magnolia Entertainment, R&C PMK and Jill Smith at Kleinberg, Lange, Cuddy and Carlo LLP. Cooper is repped by CAA, Anonymous Content and Jeff Frankel at Mckuin Frankel Whitehead. Turner & Zazove are repped by Verve, Kaplan / Perrone and Farhad Amid at McKuin Frankel Whitehead. Tamasco and Kristofek are repped by CAA and Eugene Pikulin at Bruns Brennan and Berry.