After working with Elijah Wood‘s company SpectreVision on the Sundance horror-comedy “Cooties,” Rainn Wilson has signed on to co-star in its next production “The Boy,” it was announced Wednesday. Additionally, David Morse, Mike Vogel, Zuleikha Robinson and Bill Sage have joined the ensemble cast.
Craig MacNeill is directing “The Boy” from a screenplay he co-wrote with Clay McLeod Chapman, who created the characters in his novel “Miss Corpus.” The pair previously collaborated on the respective direction and writing of the award-winning short film “Henley,” which appeared in competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival.
SpectreVision’s Wood, Daniel Noah and Josh C. Waller are producing the project, which the company is partnering on with Chiller Films. “The Boy” began principal photography on Feb. 17 in Medellín and Santa Fe de Antioquia, Colombia.
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“The Boy” is the first film of a planned trilogy tracking the childhood of a future serial killer, with installments depicting the character at ages 9, 14 and 18, respectively, and ending with his full transformation to an iconic mass murderer.
The title role of Ted Henley will be portrayed by 8-year old Jared Breeze.
Wilson will play an enigmatic stranger who intrigues and beguiles the young boy, while Morse will play the boy’s motel-owning father.
Vogel and Robinson play a married couple who spend the night at the Henley motel along with their son (Aiden Lovekamp), while Sage will portray the Sheriff of the rural town in which the Henleys reside.
Five of the actors in “The Boy” have already worked with SpectreVision, indicating that they had a positive experience with the budding company.
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“Seeing familiar faces on a SpectreVision set is one of the things that we crave as a company. When we see those faces, it means that we’re doing something right. You can’t ask for much more than that considering how vulnerable the job of an actor is,” said Waller.
Wilson, who is best known for playing eccentric paper salesman Dwight Schrute on NBC’s hit series “The Office,” will soon be seen as a gym teacher in “Cooties,” which Lionsgate bought at Sundance.
Morse and Vogel currently star in the gritty detective thriller “McCanick,” which was respectively directed and written by SpectreVision’s Waller and Noah, who also produced with Morse. The movie premiered at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.