By MICHAEL GINGOLD
Actress Pollyanna McIntosh, who broke out in the lead role of Lucky McKee’s THE WOMAN and has since become a regular on THE WALKING DEAD, has now made her directorial debut on a sequel to the former called DARLIN’. Read on for the info.
DARLIN’, which MPI Media Group is taking to the Cannes Film Festival market this month, stars Lauryn Canny in the title role with McIntosh (who also scripted) reprising the Woman character. The cast also includes Bryan Batt, Nora-Jane Noone (THE DESCENT) and fellow WALKING DEAD alumni Cooper Andrews, Sabrina Gennarino and Thomas Francis Murphy; McKee and the late Jack Ketchum were executive producers, with Andrew van den Houten producing. The synopsis: “Found at a Catholic hospital filthy and ferocious, feral teenager Darlin’ is whisked off to a care home run by The Bishop and his obedient nuns, where she’s to be rehabilitated into a ‘good girl’ as an example of the miraculous work of the church. But Darlin’ holds a secret darker than the ‘sins’ she is threatened with, and she is not traveling alone. The Woman who raised her, equally fierce and feral, is ever-present in the shadows of Darlin’s psyche and is determined to come for her no matter who tries to get in her way.”
“I’m thrilled to present DARLIN’ at a time when audiences are showing their love for entertaining, visceral social-issue horror and are hungry for female voices,” McIntosh says. “With DARLIN’ I was blessed with a talented cast and crew, including our female leads, DP, location scout and editor, who all came to the project with such passion. It will be an honor to show their hard work, which made the movie the feast it is, and to introduce the enormous talent of young star Lauryn Canny to new audiences.”
Adds van den Houten, “When I first directed Pollyanna as The Woman in the Ketchum-adapted OFFSPRING, which I also produced, I knew we had found lightning in a bottle with her. So began the dream of a trilogy for the character to live through. I’m honored that The Woman herself, Pollyanna McIntosh, is the one who has written, directed and co-starred in this third chapter. Seeing this talented collaborator take the reins with so much confidence and vision has been a personal and professional joy.”
