Let the Teenage Girl In: Bel Powley Toplines Friedrich Böhm’s “Wildling”

Sundance’s 2015 breakout starlet Bel Powley (The Diary Of A Teenage Girl) is bringing her star wattage to Wildling, an indie project described as an “elevated horror tale in the vein of vampire pic Let The Right One In” is set to begin filming at the end of the month. Deadline reports that Liv Tyler will co-produce and co-star as well. Brad Dourif and James LeGros complete the line-up. Maven Pictures’ Celine Rattray, Trudie Styler and Charlotte Ubben are producing.

Gist: Co-written by Böhm, Florian Eder and David C. Palmer, this centers on young Anna (Powley), who spends her entire childhood in a single room under the care of a mysterious man (Dourif) she only knows as “Daddy.” He makes her fear the “Outside” by telling her of the “Wildling,” a creature with sharp teeth and claws who roams about eating little children. At age 16, Anna is freed by small-town sherif Ellen Champney (Tyler) with whom she finds a temporary home. For the first time in her life, Anna experiences the Outside, soon learning there’s no such thing as the Wildling. But as she begins to flourish as a young woman, a series of unsettling events unfolds. LeGros will portray the Wolf Man, an eccentric shaman who lives in the forest.

Worth Noting: Böhm is a Munich-based producer (Toccata Films) and filmmaker, who has been working almost exclusively in the short form.

Do We Care?: Best case scenario is that Böhm turns out to be a breakout talent such as Robert Eggers (The Witch), as the Munich-based producer and filmmaker works mostly in fantasy films, however the curiosity level is high here as Bel Powley probably has piles of offers on the table.