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EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros. has acquired worldwide distribution rights to Reminiscence, the Lisa Joy-directed action thriller that will star Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson. The film marks the directorial debut of Westworld executive producer Joy, who also wrote the script. This was the hot package at Berlin, and the film sold in a competitive situation with several studios vying for the rights.

Joy will produce with her Kilter Film partner Jonathan Nolan, along with Michael De Luca and Aaron Ryder. Athena Wickham and Elishia Holmes are exec producers. The film is a co-production of Kilter Films, Michael De Luca Productions and FilmNation Entertainment. It will reunite Joy with frequent Westworld DP Paul Cameron. Principal photography will take place in New Orleans and Miami beginning in late October, to allow Joy and Nolan to complete work on the HBO show’s third season.

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Joy, Nolan REX/Shutterstock

Reminiscence follows one man’s journey to find the woman he loves after her mysterious disappearance. Jackman stars as Nicolas Bannister, a rugged and solitary veteran living in a near-future Miami flooded by rising seas. Bannister is an expert in a dangerous occupation — he offers clients the chance to relive any memory they desire. His life changes when he meets Mae (Ferguson). What begins as a simple matter of lost and found becomes a passionate love affair. But when a different client’s memories implicate Mae in a series of violent crimes, Bannister must delve through the dark world of the past to uncover the truth about the woman he fell for. An epic story that travels the intimate and infinite world of memory, Reminiscence asks: How far would you go to hold on to the ones you love?

Anyone who has seen the HBO series, on which Joy and Nolan are co-creator/showrunner/directors, also has gotten a preview of Joy’s ability to tell such sprawling, epic (and sometimes future-set) stories on a cinematic scale. Just before Endeavor Content and FilmNation brought the project to market in Hollywood and Berlin (where Joy gave a presentation), Joy eloquently pitched her vision in vivid detail to Deadline, and the buying crowd responded.

Joy and Jackman are repped by WME; Ferguson is ICM Partners and Tavistock Wood. Warner Bros negotiated the deal with Endeavor Content and Michael Schenkman of Bloom Hergott on behalf of the filmmakers.