EXCLUSIVE: Erin Moriarty (The Boys), Jai Courtney (Suicide Squad), Dina Shihabi (Archive 81) and Ryan Corr (House of the Dragon) have signed on to star in Catching Dust—an upcoming Texas noir marking the feature debut of writer-director Stuart Gatt, which will enter production in the Canary Islands this month.
The drama is set in the isolation of Texas’ Big Bend, wherea lone trailer on an abandoned commune has become the reluctant hideout for Geena (Moriarty), at the behest of her criminal husband, Clyde (Courtney). Geena’s lust for life and desire for interaction with the outside world are quashed by Clyde’s insistence they remain hidden from the law and his former cohorts looking to settle old scores. Exhausted by Clyde’s controlling ways, Geena decides to leave. But then a trailer arrives carrying Amaya (Shihabi) and Andy (Corr), a couple from New York seeking a respite from the city. Ignoring the risks their presence will bring, Geena convinces Clyde to let them stay—a decision that will have dangerous consequences for them all.
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Gatt will produce Catching Dust alongsideMark David (The Dead Sea), Jon Katz (Paterno, The Man Who Knew Infinity) and Edward R. Pressman (American Psycho, Wall Street). The feature marks the second collaboration between David and Gatt following their award-winning short, The Dead Sea. It will also be the first produced under Katz’s newly-launched Civilian 7 Entertainment banner. Sebastián Álvarez of Canary Islands’ Volcano Films will exec produce, with UTA handling domestic sales.
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“I am so proud to be part of the team bringing Stuart Gatt’s singular vision to the screen and we are excited to be working with this terrific cast,” said Katz. “Catching Dust was one of the most exciting scripts that I had come across and testament to that is the quality of actors who have come aboard Stuart’s first feature.”
Gatt is an award-winning British filmmaker of mixed Asian heritage whosepenultimate short, My Beautiful White Skin, tackled skin lightening amongst the British Asian diaspora and starred Red Notice‘s Ritu Arya. His most recent film The Dead Sea, focused on Libyan refugees’ perilous journey into Europe, starred BAFTA nominee Sope Dirisu.
Moriarty stars as Annie January (aka Starlight) on Amazon’s hit series The Boys, which will return for its third season on June 3rd. The actress recently wrapped production on the elevated thriller True Haunting, opposite Jami Campbell Bower. Her other notable credits include the Emmy-winning and Golden Globe-nominated series True Detective, Netflix’s Marvel series Jessica Jones, the Oscar-nominated film Captain Fantastic, Blood Father opposite Mel Gibson, which debuted in competition in Cannes, and the acclaimed Sundance pic The Kings of Summer.
Courtney is best known for co-starring in the Suicide Squad films, Lionsgate’s Divergent franchise and Paramount’s Terminator reboot, Terminator Genisys. He will next be seen on Amazon’s series The Terminal List opposite Chris Pratt, and on Netflix’s series Jigsaw.
Shihabi was last seen in Netflix’s supernatural horror series Archive 81, and will soon be seen in the streamer’s series Painkiller, directed by Peter Berg. The actress landed a Critics’ Choice Award nomination for her supporting turn on Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, and has also been seen on Hulu’s award-winning series, Ramy.
Corr is a three-time AACTA Award nominee and Heath Ledger Scholarship winner who will next be seen on HBO’s anticipated Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon. The Australian actor has previously appeared in such notable films as Mary Magdalene, Hacksaw Ridge, The Water Diviner and Where the Wild Things Are, among others.
David’s short film The Dead Sea, which he exec produced for Gatt, won multiple awards on the international festival circuit, including the Audience Award at the Triforce Film Festival, which qualified it for BAFTA consideration. He is currently producing a docuseries titled Power, shot across five continents, which explores the future of the world’s energy system.
Katz has produced independent and studio-based films and episodic series for over 20 years.Before founding film and television production company Civilian 7 Entertainment, which is currently developing multiple features and episodic series, he had been Chief Operating Officer and Head of Production at Pressman Film, where he oversaw the company’s operations across all phases of development, finance, production, sales and distribution. While at Pressman Film he executive produced Mary Harron’s upcoming film Daliland, starring Ben Kingsley, the recent feature documentary Dear Mr. Brody and HBO’s Emmy-nominated Paterno, starring Al Pacino. He was also a producer of The Man Who Knew Infinity, starring Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons. Katz began his entertainment career at Dustin Hoffman’s Punch Productions.
Pressman has produced more than 80 motion pictures and has 40-plus years of experience to his credit. Notable films he’s produced include John Milius’ Conan the Barbarian, Brian De Palma’s Sisters and Phantom of the Paradise, Barbet Schroeder’s Reversal of Fortune, Oliver Stone’s Wall Street, Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant, Jason Reitman’s Thank You for Smoking, Alex Proyas’ The Crow, Kathryn Bigelow’s Blue Steel, David Byrne’s True Stories, Terrence Malick’s Badlands, Sam Raimi’s Crimewave, Charles Burnett’s To Sleep with Anger and Mary Harron’s American Psycho. More recently his company released Dear Mr. Brody, directed by Keith Maitland. Pressman’s upcoming projects include the thriller She Will, from British artist and director Charlotte Colbert, which is set for release by IFC Films, and Harron’s Daliland.
Moriarty is represented by CAA and Seven Deuce Entertainment; Courtney byUTA, Silver Lining Entertainment and Morrissey Management in Australia; Shihabi by CAA and Entertainment 360; Corr by WME, Catherine Poulton Management in Australia and Ilene Feldman Management; and Gatt by UK-based attorneysLee & Thompson.