I added 10 high quality photoshoot outtakes to the gallery from last year. Click on the gallery links below see both albums that have been updated.

Deadline.com Exclusive

Fast-rising actress Thomasin McKenzie, star of Jojo Rabbit and Leave No Trace, is to play American ballet dancer Joy Womack in biopic Joika.

Womack, who is only the second American to graduate from Moscow’s infamously tough Bolshoi Ballet Academy, is personally overseeing McKenzie’s training and will act as the actress’s double for more demanding sequences.

The film will chart the dancer’s intense training, which tested the limits of her dedication, determination, sacrifice and virtuosity, and how she was spurred on by the passions of first love. Womack, now 26, went on to become the principal dancer with the Universal Ballet in Korea then returned to America where she dances with the Boston Ballet. ‘Joika’ was the name Womack was given in Russia.

Set to shoot in pandemic-free New Zealand in early 2021, writer-director James Napier Robertson, producing partner Tom Hern and fellow Kiwi McKenzie are already prepping the film and “will utilize innovative digital technology to navigate ongoing coronavirus restrictions”.

New Zealand-based Robertson and Hern are best known for acclaimed 2014 biopic The Dark Horse, which played at Toronto, and their outfit Four Knights Film has Chloe Grace Moretz horror Shadow In The Cloud in post production.

Also producing are Anonymous Content’s Paul Green (The Loft), Paula Munoz Vega and Laurie Ross. Luke Rivett will be an executive producer.

Embankment Films are executive producers and have launched worldwide sales and co-rep U.S. rights with UTA Independent Film Group. The project will be on sale during the Cannes virtual market.

Next out for McKenzie are new movies from Edgar Wright and Jane Campion and she is also due to star in the new M Night Shyamalan Universal movie.

Producer Tom Hern said: “We are delighted New Zealand is leading the way back to set during these challenging and extraordinary new times – and are even more pleased that Joika will be part of this first wave of greenlit films, post-crisis.”

Embankment’s Tim Haslam commented: “Joika is about unearthing and encouraging talent, and the sacrifices made to fulfill dreams. Put into Thomasin’s inspirational shoes, audience’s will experience every step of her journey to perfection”.

McKenzie is managed by Alissa Vradenburg at Untitled Entertainment and represented by Danie Streisand and Theresa Peters at United Talent Agency.

I added 6 new photos from Thomasin in The Justice of Bunny King to the gallery. Click on the gallery link below to see the photos full size.

M. Night Shyamalan has rounded out the cast for his next movie. Eliza Scanlen, Thomasin McKenzie, Aaron Pierre, Alex Wolff and Vicky Krieps are in negotiations to star in the top-secret project.

Shyamalan will write, produce and direct the untitled film, which will be released by Universal Picture. Like most Shyamalan movies, plot details are shrouded in secrecy and can become interconnected to his other films.

Representatives for Universal and Shyamalan had no comment.

The film currently remains without release date as Universal continues to figure out its calendar as the coronavirus pandemic caused movie theaters to close. It’s also unclear when production will begin given stay-at-home measures, but the hope is to start rolling cameras by the end of the year.

Shyamalan independently financed “Glass,” “Split” and “The Visit” with a combined production budget of $35 million. Those films went on to cumulatively gross more than $600 million worldwide. He will similarly finance his next two films.

Shyamalan recently executive produced “Servant,” a horror fiction series for Apple TV Plus. The show’s second season recently wrapped production.

Krieps’ breakout role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s romance drama “Phantom Thread” launched her career, having later appeared in “The Last Vermeer” and “The Girl in the Spider’s Web.”

After Scanlen starred alongside Amy Adams in the HBO miniseries “Sharp Objects,” she portrayed Beth March in Greta Gerwig’s adaptation of “Little Women.” She was recently in the film “Babyteeth.”

McKenzie, who starred in Taika Waititi’s Oscar winner “Jojo Rabbit,” was most recently in “The True History of the Kelly Gang.”

Wolff is best-known for Ari Aster’s horror film “Hereditary” and later acted in “Jumanji: The Next Level” and “Bad Education.”

Pierre’s credits include CW show “Krypton” and Barry Jenkins’ limited series “The Underground Railroad.”

Wolff’s casting was first reported by Collider.

Source: Varierty.com

Be sure to watch Thomasin’s newest film “Lost Girls” on Netflix tomorrow, 13 March! Here’s a new still from her in the film.