Actor Spencer Squire is making his feature directorial debut with the thriller Abandoned, and he has assembled a strong cast for his first movie. Emma Roberts (American Horror Story), John Gallagher Jr. (10 Cloverfield Lane), and two-time Oscar nominee Michael Shannon (he got those nominations for his supporting roles in Revolutionary Road and Nocturnal Animals) star in the film, which has already wrapped production.
Scripted by Jessica Scott, Erik Patterson, and Squire, Abandoned follows
a mother, father, and infant son as they move into a remote farmhouse, which harbors a dark, tragic history. As their home’s past is revealed, the mother’s fragility escalates to a state of psychosis that jeopardizes her own safety and that of her newborn son.
Deadline reports that Roberts produced the film with Robert Ogden Barnum, Eric Binns, and Byron Wetzel. Zachary Quinto, Peter Jarowey, Neal Dodson, Andrew Gans, David Gendron, Neil Gobioff, Rich Goldberg, Ali Jazayeri, Shawn Paonessa, Oliver Ridge, Viviana Zarragoitia, Michael Reiser, Delos Chang, and Deepen Shah serve as executive producers. The project was fully financed through a partnership between Vertical Entertainment and Three Point Capital.
Vertical and Three Point intend to continue working together beyond this project. Vertical’s Peter Jarowey and Three Point Capital’s David Gendron and Ali Jazayeri released a joint statement to say,
our financing strategy moving forward will be hyper-focused on the symmetry of art and commerce making sure that the ratio of story, talent (both in front of and behind the camera) and spend equates to a fantastic consumer experience that is beneficial to both Vertical’s and Three Point’s bottomline. Our initial strategy is to activate this model for 2-3 projects annually beginning in 2022. From there, we will see where it takes us.”
Jarowey says that Abandoned is “an extremely frightening, yet relatable, feature brought to life by (an) incredible cast.”
The fact that Abandoned stars Emma Roberts, John Gallagher Jr., and Michael Shannon is enough to convince me that I should watch it at some point. We’ll let you know when release plans are revealed.
This is Squire’s first time working with Roberts and Gallagher, but he and Shannon have both had acting roles in the rowing team drama Heart of Champions and the upcoming comedy Shriver.