Sundance Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award winning filmmaker Chad Hartigan flirted with some various projects post Morris from America (2016), and now he is setting up shop on what will be his fourth feature with 2018 Blacklist listed screenplay. Based on the short story by novelist Aja Gabel, written by Mattson Tomlin, production on Little Fish begins next month in Vancouver. Chris Ferguson, Jesse Savath, JJ Dubois and Automatik Film’s Brian Kavanaugh-Jones (most recent items from Sundance include Honey Boy and The Wolf Hour) are set to produce. Expect imminent casting announcements for the two principle players of Emma and Jude. Olivia Cooke is a possibility.
Gist: This is about a couple who fight to hold their relationship together as a memory loss virus spreads and threatens to erase the history of their love and courtship.
Worth Noting: Tomlin has had several specs on the annual Blacklist with five times in the past four years.
Do We Care?: Part relationship drama and dystopia, we’re getting Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Reed Morano’s I Think We’re Alone Now vibes.
Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).
