EXCLUSIVE: The team behind seven-time Golden Globe nominee The Brutalist have been quietly working on a starry musical called Ann Lee, which has now wrapped, with Oscar nominee Amanda Seyfried (Mank) in the lead role.
Mona Fastvold (The World To Come), Golden Globe-nominated co-writer of The Brutalist, serves as director, co-screenwriter, and producer. Venice Silver Lion winner Brady Corbet co-wrote with his Brutalist collaborator and partner, Fastvold. Golden Globe-nominated composer Daniel Blumberg (The Brutalist) wrote and produced the original music.
The film, inspired by real events, is described to us as “an epic fable” about religious leader Ann Lee, the founding leader of the Shaker Movement, who was proclaimed by her followers as the female Christ and went on to build one of the largest utopian societies in American history. Lee–one of the rare female religious heads at the time– and her followers worshipped through exuberant song and dance.
Lee, also known as Mother Ann Lee, was born in England in 1736 but in 1774 she and a small group of her followers emigrated to New York where Lee continued to become a prominent and powerful figure.
Seyfried, who won a Golden Globe and Emmy for The Dropout, leads the movie in the title role with supporting cast including Thomasin McKenzie, Lewis Pullman, Christopher Abbott, Tim Blake Nelson, Stacy Martin, Matthew Beard, Scott Handy, Viola Prettejohn, David Cale, and Jamie Bogyo.
The project marks Seyfried’s first musical since 2018 hit sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, though this is of a very different register. She also starred in Les Miserables.
Pic is produced by Kaplan Morrison’s Andrew Morrison, Intake Films’ Joshua Horsfield, Proton Cinema’s Viktoria Petranyi, Mona Fastvold, and Brady Corbet alongside Mark Lampert, Mid March Media’s Gregory Jankilevitsch and Klaudia Smieja-Rostworowska, and Mizzel Media’s Lillian LaSalle.
The team are lining up a 2025 launch. Sales and distribution has yet to be set on the project.
Executive producers include Zelene Fowler and Michael Fowler for Mizzel Media; Kyle Stroud for Carte Blanche; Claude Amadeo, Randal Sandler, Michael D’Alto, Chris Triana, and Adam Paulsen for First Gen; Saskia Duff for Intake Films; Tom Ogden; Chris Renteria; and Oleg Nodelman. Co-producers include Daniel Lägersten of Gota Film, Kristina Börjeson of Film i Väst, and Maddie Browning.
Fastvold’s well-received 2020 drama The World To Come played at Venice (where it won a Queer Lion) and starred Katherine Waterston, Vanessa Kirby, Casey Affleck and Christopher Abbott.
Seyfried is coming off her Emmy-winning role in Hulu series The Dropout. She has been set to star in Lionsgate and Hidden Pictures’ The Housemaid alongside Sydney Sweeney and directed by Paul Feig. Also upcoming in 2025, she will executive-produce and star in the Peacock limited series Long Bright River.
Fastvold is represented by Brian Young and CAA. Seyfried is repped by Innovative and Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz.