Daisy Ridley Is an Axe-Wielding Vigilante in First Look at Zak Hilditch’s Survival Thriller ‘We Bury the Dead’
Daisy Ridley, star of the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy, is a different kind of vigilante in Zak Hilditch’s upcoming horror-survival-thriller “We Bury the Dead.”
The film, which will have its world premiere shortly and hold a special preview event at Australia’s Adelaide Film Festival in November, unveiled a first look at Ridley in the role of a desperate woman who joins a body retrieval unit, hoping to find her husband alive after a disastrous military experiment destroys the population of Tasmania. As she sifts through the corpses, she discovers that many are not quite dead.
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Ridley’s character looks haggard as she journeys to the south of Tasmania and is forced to make peace with her own unfinished business in the face of futility.
Production took place across Albany and the Great Southern region in Western Australia earlier this year. The film co-stars Brenton Thwaites (“Titans”) and Mark Coles Smith (“Mystery Road: Origin”).
“We Bury the Dead” is Hilditch’s fourth feature film. His previous credits are: “1922,” “These Final Hours” and “Rattlesnake.”
The film is produced by Kelvin Munro and Grant Sputore of West Australia production company The Penguin Empire (“I Am Mother,” “The Furnace”), alongside Hilditch’s frequent collaborator Ross Dinerstein (“1922,” “Rattlesnake”) of Campfire Studios in the U.S. Also producing are Gramercy Park’s Joshua Harris and Mark Fasano, with executive producers Nathan Klingher and Ford Corbett. Ari Harrison and Jeff Harrison of Umbrella Entertainment are also executive producers.
“We Bury the Dead” is a Penguin Empire production in partnership with Campfire Studios. It attracted major production investment from Screen Australia in association with Screenwest, Lotterywest and the WA Regional Screen Fund. Further funding came from Gramercy Park Media and Peachtree Media Partners. Local distribution is by Umbrella Entertainment, while international sales are handled by Neon and UTA Independent Film Group.
Ridley, who recently led “The Marsh King’s Daughter” and “Young Woman and the Sea” and starred in and produced “Sometimes I Think About Dying,” is expected to return to the “Star Wars” franchise for “Star Wars: New Jedi Order,” a new film set after the events of “The Rise of Skywalker.”
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