Ben Mendelsohn, Abbey Lee, Toby Wallace & Eliza Scanlen Lead Cast In John Michael McDonagh’s ‘Fear Is The Rider’; Film Constellation & CAA Media Finance Aboard For AFM

EXCLUSIVE: Heading into the American Film Market, Film Constellation and CAA Media Finance will be looking to scare up deals on writer-director John Michael McDonagh‘s (The Guard) Fear Is The Rider.

An adaptation of the novel The Hunted by Gabriel Bergmoser, the team has attached Ben Mendelsohn (Star Wars: Rogue One) Abbey Lee (Horizons: An American Saga), Toby Wallace (The Bikeriders) and Eliza Scanlen (Babyteeth) in lead roles.

In a nod to the gore-drenched Ozploitation slashers of the 1970s, the film follows a lone woman, searching for her missing mother, who is pursued into the Australian Outback by a terrifying family of serial killers, with only an ex-con and a young girl willing to help her.

Pic is being produced by McDonagh and Elizabeth Eves’ House of Un-American Activities (The Forgiven), Trevor Matthews and Nick Gordon of Brookstreet Pictures (The Brutalist) and Kate Glover (Foe). The film is set to start principal photography in Australia in early 2025.

Daniel Henshall (Mickey 17), Brenton Thwaites (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales), Thomas Turgoose (This is England), Rhys Wakefield (The Purge), Shane Jacobson (The Bourne Legacy), Susie Porter (Gold) and Jacqui Purvis (Home and Away) round out the cast.

The project was initially launched in 2022 in a different guise and it has got fresh impetus with a different cast and production and finance partners. This is the first instalment in a trilogy of thrillers. The second part is titled Fear is the Rider: Australia Day, based on a novel by Kenneth Cook (Wake in Fright).

Fear Is The Rider marks John Michael McDonagh’s fifth directorial feature following pics such as Golden Globes and BAFTA nominated The Guard and Sundance and Berlin prize-winner Calvary.

Mendelsohn is represented by WME and United Management in Australia; Lee is represented by CAA, Hamilton Hodell in the UK, United Management in Australia, and Hansen, Jacobson; Wallace is represented by CAA, 3 Arts Entertainment, Catherine Poulton Management in Australia, and Sloane Offer. Scanlen is represented by WME, Independent Management Company in Australia, 2AM Management and Sloan, Offer.

Henshall is represented by RGM Artists Australia; Thwaites is represented by UTA and Good Day Productions; Turgoose is represented by B-Side Management in the UK; Wakefield is represented by CAA, Artists First and Jackoway Austen; Jacobson is represented by United Management in Australia; Susie Porter is represented by Sue Barnett and Associates in Australia; Purvis is represented by CBM Management in Australia and Brave Artists Management in the US; Bergmoser is represented by Intellectual Property Group and Curtis Brown Australia; The estate of Kenneth Cook is represented by Curtis Brown Australia.