XYZ Films Thriller Christina Hendricks

Cannes: Christina Hendricks to Star in XYZ Films Thriller ‘Reckoner’
Nissar Modi will direct the film, adapted from Rachel Ingalls' short story, about an affluent woman whose carefully constructed life is threatened by a dark secret from her past.
Mad Man star Christina Hendricks is attached to play the lead in Reckoner, an upcoming psychological thriller based on a short story by the late Rachel Ingalls.

Screenwriter Nissar Modi (Z for Zachariah) will adapt the Ingalls story and step behind the camera for his directorial debut. XYZ Films and Two & Two Pictures are producing, with XYZ preselling the project to buyers at the Cannes Film Market later this month. Reckoner will be released under XYZ’s New Visions label, a recently launched state of elevated genre films from new and up-and-coming filmmakers.

Hendricks, whose indie film credits include Sally Potter’s Ginger & Rosa, and Drive and The Neon Demon from Nicolas Winding Refn, will play an affluent woman whose carefully constructed life is threatened by a young man with a connection to a tightly held secret from her past. Modi called it a “haunting tale of guilt, obsession, and revenge.”

XYZ Films and Two & Two Pictures have previously teamed up on such features as Babak Anvari’s Under the Shadow and I Came By, and the upcoming History of Evil from director Bo Mirhosseni. Their collaboration aims to produce films from first and second-time genre filmmakers from underrepresented demographics.

Mila Cottray, head of production and finance at Two & Two called Reckoner “a film which reminds us of many of our favorite psychological thrillers, like Cape Fear or Nocturnal Animals, but offers a stylized and contemporary spin on the genre that is distinctly Nissar.”

XYZ launched its New Visions slate last month with In Flames, an Urdu-language horror-thriller from Pakistani Canadian filmmaker Zarrar Kahn, which will premiere in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar in Cannes. Other titles on the New Visions slate include Barnaby Clay’s Tribeca festival entry The Seeding, Robert Hloz’s Czech science fiction crime tale Restore Point — which will screen footage for buyers at the Cannes market — and Paul Duane’s upcoming Irish folk horror All You Need Is Death.

Hendricks is represented by UTA, Independent Talent Group and LINK Entertainment. Modi is represented by 42 and VanderKloot Law.