Andrea Riseborough (Birdman) will lead the cast of Geechee, a supernatural thriller from debut writer-director Dubois Ashong.

Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios will finance and produce the pic and is repping sales rights. CAA Media Finance is co-repping domestic rights.

Riseborough will star as Wren, a successful New York scientist who decides to leave the city with her son to start life over in the remote Sea Islands off the Atlantic Coast. She quickly falls in love with the land and the people on the secluded island, but soon her world starts to unravel as the souls of the subjugated begin to haunt her dreams and her waking life.

Production is set for early 2020. AGC’s Ford and Glendon Palmer will produce. Onboard as executive producers are Jermaine Johnson and Luke Maxwell of 3 Arts Entertainment.

Riseborough will next be seen in Nicolas Pesce’s reboot of horror movie The Grudge, which is slated for release on January 3, 2020, and Stefano Sollima’s ZeroZeroZero, Amazon’s true-crime series focusing on the cocaine drug trade that premiered at the 2019 Venice Film Festival. She has also completed roles in Brandon Cronenberg’s thriller Possessor, Zeina Durra’s drama Luxor, and Louis Wain opposite Benedict Cumberbatch and Claire Foy.

“From treatment to script, Dubois has created a terrific supernatural thriller that is only elevated by the addition of the amazing Andrea Riseborough,” said Palmer.

Deal was negotiated by AGC’s VP of Legal & Business Affairs Anant Tamirisa on behalf of AGC; by Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Newman, Warren & Richman on behalf of Ashong; and by Felker Toczek Suddleson Abramson on behalf of Riseborough. Ashong is repped by 3 Arts Entertainment, and Riseborough is repped by CAA, Independent Talent Group, Untitled Entertainment, and attorney Patti Felker.