Jessica Biel will star in The Tall Man, a film to be financed by France’s SND. French director Pascal Laugier will make his English-language debut with the project.

The film is the second English-language project from SND which will also release in France and handle international sales. Budget is $15m with shooting to start in Vancouver in September.

Tall Man is a suspenseful thriller in the vein of the early films of M. Night Shyamalan, SND’s Lionel Uzan tells Screen. Biel plays a woman who must grapple with and track the mysterious figure of The Tall Man who has kidnapped her child.

Laugier, who also wrote the film, says “I like to think of The Tall Man as a sort of Panic Room… outside! It is a ‘woman in jeopardy’ movie with a lot of twists and a strong female character that you feel very connected to.”
Tall Man is produced by Clement Miserez, (Radar Films) and Steven Schneider (Room 101 Inc.). Jean-Charles Levy and Bonnie Timmermann will also serve as executive producers.

Biel is repped by CAA, Management 360 and attorney Karl Austen of Jackoway, Tyerman, Wertheimer, Austen, Mandelbaum, Morris and Klein.

Laugier is represented by WME and Austen.

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