EXCLUSIVE: Here’s a buzzy one. Leah McKendrick, fresh off her Netflix smash Voicemails For Isabelle, is next set to direct thriller Delulu, in which she’ll also star alongside Pretty Lethal and West Side Story star Maddie Ziegler.
McKendrick has also written and will serve as an executive producer on the project which heralds from XYZ Films (Havoc) and Off Campus and Twilight producer Temple Hill.
Described as a “bloody showdown about fame, envy and the strange intimacy of girlhood”, McKendrick “will play a washed-up millennial pop singer who kidnaps a rising Gen Z influencer (Ziegler) and makes one deranged demand: get her a million followers in two weeks or die.”
Wyck Godfrey, Marty Bowen, Isaac Klausner and Laura Quicksilver are producing for Temple Hill. Hal Sadoff is exec-producing. Guy Danella is producing for XYZ, which is financing and launching sales at this week’s AFM.
Voicemails For Isabelle, released on Netflix this summer, became the best-performing rom-com on the streamer in the last five years. The Zoey Deutch, Nick Robinson and McKendrick starrer spent seven weeks in Netflix’s top five global movies and scored an 88% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
McKendrick also wrote, directed and starred in Scrambled, which premiered at SXSW and was released theatrically by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions.
Set for production in 2027, McKendrick said of Delulu and former Dance Moms and music video star Ziegler: “I have been a die-hard fan of Maddie since she was a little girl dancing her heart out on our TV screens – and I’m beyond blown away by the multifaceted artist she has grown into. I’m fired up to watch her devour a role that demands every color of her insane talent. Temple Hill and XYZ are fearlessly championing my vision to make my rawest, bloodiest, most ferociously female film yet.”
“Leah is a bold storyteller with a voice and vision that transcends genre,” said Laura Quicksilver, EVP of Development, Temple Hill Entertainment. “We are thrilled to be collaborating with her on Delulu, a film that is outrageously funny, emotionally vulnerable and just wickedly twisted. Leah has revealed herself as a real talent both behind and in front of the camera and we can’t wait for audiences to see her go head-to-head with Maddie Ziegler, who brings a magnetism and fearlessness to all that she does. This role finally weaves together Maddie’s immense talents in both acting and dance in a way we’ve all been clamoring for.”
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