The Burning Season (Starring Sophia Lillis and Naomi Watts)

[Canada]

Plot: A scientist brings her teenage daughter to a remote region of Madagascar, where her determination to save endangered lemurs puts their relationship and safety at risk.

Naomi Watts and Sophia Lillis are set to take lead roles in writer-director Claire McCarthy's drama Burning Season.

The film will be introduced to buyers by HanWay Films, starting at the Cannes Film Festival. Watts starred in McCarthy's Ophelia and will executive produce Burning Season.

HanWay Films is also working with Watts on The Wolf Hour, a psychological thriller, from writer and director Alistair Banks, also to be launched at Cannes.

Adapted for the screen by writer-producer Jenny Halper and based on a short story by Laura Van Den Berg, Burning Season portrays a mother-daughter relationship set against the landscape of Madagascar, where nearly all local species are indigenous and endangered.

Primatologist June Engle (Watts) returns to a drought-stricken Madagascar in search of endangered species and is dragged along by teenage daughter Celia (Lillis), who uses the trip as a voyage of discovery. Burning Season was developed by Halper and Kate Sharp via Daughter Films. The script was featured on the 2016 Black List.

Sharp and Halper will also produce the film, set to go into production in South Africa and Madagascar.

Starring:

Sophia Lillis



Naomi Watts