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Vanessa Marano, a prolific actor known for leading roles and guest turns in numerous notable TV series throughout the 2000s, will both produce and star in the bridal-party horror comedy “Ring Leader.”
Marano is producing
the feature through her U.S. production company Calabrian Rhode, behind 2022 Netflix Original romantic comedy “The Royal Treatment,” which hit the streamer’s No. 1 spot worldwide upon its release.
British Columbia-based director Jason Lapeyre is co-producing via his label Osaka Sunset Pictures. Both are attending the Fantasia Film Festival’s Frontières Co-Production Market where they are presenting the project to genre buyers and industry at its marquee pitch event July 22.
“Our goal is to come out of the market with a partner who can help us complete our gap financing goals,” Marano told Variety. “We will be filming in British Columbia, and the tax incentives coming out of Canada allow for us to make a commercially viable film at a realistic scale without sacrificing passion or vision.”
Marano, best known for her leading role in five seasons of global TV hit “Switched At Birth” (2011–2017), has been building her career on the other side of the camera over the past several years. She founded Calabrian Rhode in 2018 with her mother and younger sister – respectively, longtime Primetime Emmy consultant for HBO Ellen Marano and singer, producer, and actor Laura Marano, who starred in “The Royal Treatment.”
Lapeyre’s genre features include “Cold Blooded,” Fantasia’s best Canadian film audience award winner in 2012, and “I Declare War” (2013), which picked up several awards on its festival circuit run.
Marano said she and Lapeyre, who became friends on set in 2013, had been talking about collaborating for years. More recently, she was talking with Elana Dunkelman and her writing partner, Becky Shrimpton about potential projects. “We all got together on a video call and started brainstorming an idea for one of the darkest and most terrifying horror scenarios of all time – a bridal party.
“Elana and Becky wrote an incredible script that truly captures all the complicated feelings that go into being a bridesmaid—the absolute wild fun and the bone-chilling psychological torment. It’s ‘Bridesmaids’ meets ‘Send Help.’”
Frontières’s Co-Production Market unspools July 22-25 at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal.
