Watch: Kaya Scodelario in First Trailer for Sundance Hit “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes”

April 17, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Videos Leave a comment

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British actress Kaya Scodelario emerged from this year’s Sundance Film Festival with a hearty chunk of buzz for her breakthrough performance in “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes”, and today we have the first trailer for the mysterious coming of age drama.

The plot we’ve been previously spoiled on – Emanuel (Scodelario) is drawn to a mysterious new neighbor (Jessica Biel) who resembles her late mother and volunteers to babysit for what turns out to be a very lifelike doll – is not touched upon here at all, with the trailer employing atmosphere, mood, elements of magical realism in what appear to be fantasy sequences to intrigue potential audiences.

Are you intrigued? Well, unless you are planning on attending Sundance London next weekend, it may be a while before you get to see this buzzy title, which somehow inexplicably still has no distribution lined up yet. In the meantime, you can watch the trailer below.

Watch: First clip from Sundance-bound “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes” starring Kaya Scodelario

January 11, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Videos Leave a comment

Kaya Scodelario takes the sullen teenager act to a new level in our first look at a scene from “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes”, the Francesca Gregorini drama headed for a Sundance premiere next week. Scodelario plays the titular character, who is drawn into mystery and drama when she meets her next door neighbor Linda, played by Jessica Biel, who is a doppelganger of Emanuel’s dead mother. Linda has her own issues stemming from the death of her baby, and carries around a lifelike doll which she believes is her child. Emanuel begins to babysit the doll in order to get closer to Linda.

The first scene released from the film sees Scodelario’s Emanuel having a bit of trouble communicating with her father, played by Alfred Molina, about her new job at the dinner table. You can watch it below, and catch “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes” at Sundance when it premieres next Friday night. The film has no distribution and no release date yet.

Sundance 2013: First photos of Kaya Scodelario in “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes”

November 28, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Images Leave a comment

Via Variety, we have the first photo of Francesca Gregorini’s Sundance-bound coming of age drama “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes”, starring “Skins” actress Kaya Scodelario. The director last helmed “Tanner Hall” and had set that film’s star Rooney Mara for the titular role here, but Mara’s increasingly busy schedule likely forced her to drop out, making her loss Scodelario’s gain.

The British rising star of “Wuthering Heights” plays a troubled young woman here who becomes obsessed with a neighbor (Jessica Biel) bearing an uncanny resemblance to the girl’s dead mother. Biel’s character has lost a child herself and has taken to toting around a very lifelike doll which she believes is her baby. In an attempt to get closer to her neighbor, Scodelario accepts a job as the doll’s babysitter. Alfred Molina, Frances O’Connor, Jimmi Simpson, and Aneurin Barnard as Emanuel’s love interest round out the cast.

The first photo of Scodelario in “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes”, which frankly looks like a screengrab from a trailer that we’ll hopefully see soon, can be viewed below.

British actor Aneurin Barnard to romance Kaya Scodelario in “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes”

January 5, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Casting on indie drama “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes” is quickly firming up, with Variety reporting today that four new actors have signed on for supporting roles in the film that stars Kaya Scodelario and Jessica Biel. Alfred Molina, Frances O’Connor, Jimmi Simpson and relative newcomer Aneurin Barnard have joined the cast and will begin filming later this month under the direction of Francesca Gregorini.

Scodelario plays the titular 17-year-old Emanuel, whose creepy neighbor Linda (Biel) wheels around a “baby” that’s just a very life-like doll. Emanuel befriends and agrees to babysit the “baby” because Linda looks exactly like Emanuel’s own mother, who’s deceased. Molina and O’Connor will play Emanuel’s father and stepmother, while Simpson will be Linda’s co-worker. Barnard will be Emanuel’s love interest.

Barnard, a virtual unknown hailing from England, has had supporting roles in films like “Powder” and the recent “Ironclad”, but who people may still remember from being one of the finalists for Bryan Singer’s “Jack the Giant Killer”, a role that eventually went to Nicholas Hoult. Barnard will next be seen in psychological drama “Trap for Cinderella” opposite fellow British rising star Alexandra Roach.

Kaya Scodelario to replace Rooney Mara in “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes”

December 13, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 2 Comments

Just yesterday The Playlist uncovered during an interview with the filmmaker that Rooney Mara had dropped out of “Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes”, an indie drama that would have reunited her with “Tanner Hall” director Francesca Gregorini. Well, it didn’t take long for the filmmakers to find a replacement, as Variety reports British up and comer Kaya Scodelario will now take the title role instead.

According to Gregorini’s interview with The Playlist, age was the issue that caused Mara to ultimately pass on the project. The character, Emanuel, is a troubled seventeen year old girl who agrees to babysit her strange neighbor’s “baby”, which is in fact just a life-like doll. Meanwhile, the neighbor herself is the spitting image of Emanuel’s dead mother. Though Mara is a youthful-looking 26 and had played teenagers in all her projects prior to “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”, it’s undeniable that fresh-faced 19 year old Scodelario is a much more natural fit. The project with Mara in the title role had been gearing up for a shoot this past summer, but will now be filmed in early 2012.

Scodelario, a fan favorite on British teen series “Skins”, was amongst many girls who may or may not have come close to landing the role of Katniss in “The Hunger Games”, which went to Jennifer Lawrence. But Scodelario herself had quite a year when she starred as Cathy in Andrea Arnold’s new and innovative retelling of Emily Bronte classic “Wuthering Heights.” She recently wrapped up teen drama “Now is Good” opposite Dakota Fanning and Jeremy Irvine.

“Tanner Hall” starring Rooney Mara gets a new poster and release date

August 4, 2011 | Posted by Linda Ge in Images Leave a comment

One of the perks of an actor gaining overnight success is reaped by that actor’s previous, lesser known films. “Tanner Hall”, directed by Francesca Gregorini and Tatiana von Furstenberg (daughter of Diane) and starring then unknown actress Rooney Mara, first bowed in Toronto all the way back in 2009. While it received mostly positive reviews and even went on to win the Best Feature award at the Gen Art Film Festival several months later, it had trouble getting distributed, most likely due in no small part to its lack of star power within the cast and behind the scenes.

So Von Furstenberg and co. must have been over the moon when their star landed the biggest casting coup of the past several years in taking on the role of Lisbeth Salander in David Fincher’s English language adaptation of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. Indie distributor Anchor Bay wasted no time in snapping up the all girls boarding school coming of age drama and set it for release two months before “Dragon Tattoo” premieres.

Mara is joined in “Tanner Hall” by a couple of other young actresses who also appear to be on the cusp of a breakout. British actress Georgia King was recently named one of Screen International’s Stars of Tomorrow and Brie Larson, last seen as Envy Adams in “Scott Pilgrim vs the World”, landed the highly coveted female lead in the “21 Jump Street” remake opposite Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill. Needless to say, we’ll be keeping a close eye on Von Furstenberg’s casting choices in the future.

“Tanner Hall” will be released in select cities on September 9th and a new poster has also been released, which can be seen below.

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