Eleven months ago, we heard that Halle Berry had signed on to star in a horror movie called Mother Land, with genre regular Alexandre Aja on board to direct. Now Deadline reports that Mother Land has been retitled Never Let Go – and filming is underway! Berry is joined in the cast by Percy Daggs IV (The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey) and Anthony B. Jenkins (Florida Man).
Never Let Go is set up at Lionsgate. Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen, and Dan Levine of 21 Laps (the production company behind Stranger Things and Free Guy, among other things) are producing the film with Aja. Berry is executive producing alongside Holly Jeter and 21 Laps’ Emily Morris. Chelsea Kujawa and Scott O’Brien are overseeing the project for Lionsgate.
Scripted by Kevin Coughlin and Ryan Grassby, Never Let Go follows a mother (Berry) and her fraternal twin sons (Daggs and Jenkins) who have been tormented by an evil spirit for years and are convinced to never let go of their family’s protective bond. But when one of the boys questions if the evil is real, their connection is severed, triggering a terrifying fight for survival.
Aja’s previous directing credits include High Tension, The Hills Have Eyes, Mirrors, Piranha 3D, Horns, The 9th Life of Louis Drax, Crawl, and Oxygen. We first heard about Never Let Go (then known as Mother Land) almost exactly two years ago, when it was announced that Mark Romanek had signed on to direct the film. There were eight years between Romanek’s first film One Hour Photo and his second feature Never Let Me Go, and it looked like this was going to be his third movie. Eleven years (at the time) after Never Let Me Go. But then Romanek dropped out and Aja signed on. Now we continue to wait and see if Romanek is going to make a third feature.
Does Never Let Go sound interesting to you? Let us know by leaving a comment below. I watch anything Aja makes and have since High Tension first made its way into U.S. theatres, so I’ll definitely be checking this out.