Carla Woodcock is moving into survival-thriller territory, signing on to lead White, the upcoming shark film from horror director Jake West.
Woodcock, whose credits include Starz’s Outlander, will play Willa Harba, described in the film’s press materials as “a struggling actress trying to catch her big break.” The role places her at the center of a high-stakes ocean survival story that also features Kate Beckinsale and Katherine McNamara.
In White, Willa is traveling overseas for a shoot with a self-obsessed star when their private jet crashes into the Pacific. She becomes the only survivor, left stranded on a broken wing in the middle of the ocean with a satellite phone as her sole connection to anyone beyond the wreckage.
The lifeline is not exactly straightforward. Willa reaches out to her demanding studio boss, played by Beckinsale, but is brushed off. Her signal is then picked up by marine biologist Sam Swatek, played by McNamara, who delivers the crucial warning: Willa has crash-landed in the White Shark Café, an area of ocean where great white sharks gather to feed.
West is directing the film from a screenplay by Dan Schaffer, the writer and illustrator of the cult comic book series Dogwitch. West’s prior directing credits include Evil Aliens.
Behind the camera, White is produced by Yariv Lerner, Dominic Burns, Crawford Anderson-Dillon and Sky Morfopoulos. Beckinsale is also serving as an executive producer alongside Highland Film Group’s Arianne Fraser and Delphine Perrier, Patrick Wintersgill, Kevin Glynn, Pauric Duffy and Hannah Leader.
International sales already underway
Highland Film Group is co-financing White and handling world sales on the title at TIFF. The company has already pre-sold the film across multiple international territories.
Those deals include Splendid Film in Germany, IIF in Italy, Three Lines Pictures for Benelux, Cinemundo for Portugal, Falcon Films for the Middle East, California Filmes for Latin America and Rialto Distribution for Australia and New Zealand, among others.
The film joins Highland Film Group’s current slate, which also includes Nimród Antal’s sci-fi action thriller Bluefly with Russell Crowe and Priyanka Chopra Jonas; Neil Burger’s action thriller Barracuda, starring Anthony Mackie and Dafne Keen; and Pierre Morel’s action thriller The Good Samaritan, starring Daisy Ridley, Josh Duhamel and Sharlto Copley.
Woodcock is represented by Sarah Camlett at Independent Talent Group.