EXCLUSIVE: Oscar nominee Keisha Castle-Hughes (Whale Rider) is attached to produce and star in Wellwood, a sci-fi indie that centers on a terminally ill Laura and her husband Nick, who makes an extraterrestrial discovery that he decides will cure his wife. Game of Thrones actress Castle-Hughes play Gracie Marsh, the skeptical and thorough local deputy to Nichols’s Sheriff Bradley, the small town’s de facto leader.

Lance E. Nichols, Camille Balsamo and Reid Collums also co-star. Production is underway in New Orleans with Eliza Hooper directing from a script by Collums. The project hails from studioADI with special effects artists Alec Gillis and Tom Woodruff Jr. serving as exec producers.

Castle-Hughes, who recurred on HBO’s Game Of Thrones, was most recently was seen in Universal’s Thank You for Your Service and Discovery Channel’s limited series Manhunt: Unabomber.

She’s repped by Industry Entertainment and Innovative.