River director Jamie Dagg is sticking with the thriller genre for his next film, Sweet Virginia and he's busy lining up the cast. The roster now includes Jon Bernthal, Imogen Poots, Christopher Abbott, Rosemarie DeWitt and Odessa Young.
Bernthal is playing a motel owner with a dark past, who strikes up an unlikely (and unknowing) friendship with a young hitman who is responsible for a series of slayings that has gripped a small town. As for what anyone else's character will be doing, Deadline's report doesn't specify. So perhaps Poots is playing a local woman who falls for Abbott, or even a competing assassin? DeWitt could be a competing motel owner who decides to hire the hitman for some dark deed. Okay, we'll stop speculating now.
Dagg should be rolling his cameras at the end of this week, with Ben and Paul China providing the script, which landed on the Black List when it was first written. That hasn't always been the most reliable indicator of the final film's quality, but it's a start.
Bernthal, of course, most recently appeared as Frank "The Punisher" Castle in Season 2 of Daredevil and is preparing to return to the role in a spin-off about Castle himself. Poots is part of the cast for Cameron Crowe's Roadies, which is nearing the end of its first season. Abbott was a recurring character on Girls and has festival pic Katie Says Goodbye headed to Toronto. As for DeWitt, she'll pop up in Damien Chazelle's La La Land, while Young has worked on streaming service drama pilot When The Street Lights Go On.