Producer Michael Wrenn and US director David Burris are developing Doubles, a slacker comedy about an aging tennis pro who is forced to play one last game with his ex-partner, who had slept with his wife.
That will be their second collaboration following The World Made Straight, a North Carolina-shot coming-of-age thriller which opens in US cinemas and on-demand platforms on January 9.
US author Nic Brown is writing the screenplay of Doubles based on his novel. Wrenn tells IF the plan is to shoot in northern Ontario, with pick-ups in a Southern state that has tax incentives in late 2015.
The original idea of shooting in North Carolina was nixed after Tea Party Senators conspired to annul the state's location incentives.
The World Made Straight stars The Railway Man’s Jeremy Irvine as a high school drop-out who struggles to decide between the dark path he is on and the chance at a new life.
The 1970s-set film based on a Ron Rash novel has its roots in Australia. Wrenn, who spent his formative years in North Carolina, optioned the novel and developed the project with his friend Burris. The screenplay is by Shane Danielsen, a former artistic director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
The cast includes Adelaide Clemens, the Aussie whose credits include The Great Gatsby, Silent Hill: Revelation 3D and TV’s Rectify and Parade’s End, together with Noah Wyle, Minka Kelly, Steve Earle and Haley Joel Osment.
Wrenn produced with Dreambridge Films' Todd J. Labarowski and Daniel Wagner of Bifrost Pictures. It was the feature directing debut of Burris, who was executive producer on several seasons of Survivor.
Millennium Entertainment will launch the thriller in 20 US cinemas and on premium VoD and electronic sell through in January and on VoD and DVD in February/March.
International sales agent Myriad Pictures sold the film to Tiberius in Germany and is negotiating deals for the UK and Australia.