Rebecca Ferguson & Hugh Jackman to star in sci-fi thriller from Lisa Joy

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Rebecca Ferguson and Hugh Jackman may be set to reunite for a film which sounds quite different from their first collaboration on THE GREATEST SHOWMAN. Deadline has reported that Hugh Jackman and Rebecca Ferguson are currently finalizing deals to star in REMINISCENCE, a sci-fi thriller which has been scripted by Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy.

The project, which will be unveiled for major studios later this week, will star Jackman as Nick Bannister, a private-eye who deals in "recapturing vivid cherished memories for clients." Rebecca Ferguson will play one of those clients whose seemingly simple request sets Nick off on a quest to reveal this woman's past. REMINISCENCE will take place in Miami in the not-too-distant future, but the city will be enormously changed by global warming as much of it will be submerged underwater. In addition to spending the past five years scripting REMINISCENCE, Lisa Joy will also be making her feature directorial debut on the film. "It has been a labor of love and also vision," Joy said. "I know exactly what I want this to be, including all of the action set pieces, and turning Miami into a sunken world. Working on Westworld has been an incredible experience in learning to make something with the scope of a feature on a TV timeline with a budget nowhere near what you would expect for a feature film equivalent." Lisa Joy also went on to give Deadline her full pitch for the project.

Reminiscence posits a world where that technology does exist. And there’s a character named Nick Bannister, played by Hugh Jackman. He is a kind of a P.I. of the mind — think Wolverine meets Humphrey Bogart — and he has a business where, when people want to remember something, they come into his office and he’s almost like a psychologist. All the files from our past are stored in our minds, and the question is, which one do you access? How do you get it to the right moment, the moment you’re looking for. His skill is asking questions and taking people through this lulling experience, where he finds the moments that you desire to reengage with and immerses you back in them. For a small fee.

People come back to remember their youth, their loved ones, their children, the dog that they used to run around with in a field behind their parents’ house in childhood, old lovers, things like this. One day, a beautiful mysterious woman comes into his office. And she has a very simple request. She lost a set of keys, and she just needs a quick nudge, to remember where she dropped them. That meeting is the beginning of a really epic romance, where they fall madly in love and you just watch the relationship evolve. And then one day the girl, suddenly, goes missing. Nick Bannister is completely bereft, confused and lost, at the loss of his love. He decides he has to find her. He has to get her back. It turns into a thriller, where, to get the girl, he has to unpack her past. And see different aspects of her personality that he didn’t know before, in order to find her again. This entire thing, the heart of it, is this love story.

You can check out the rest of of Lisa Joy's pitch right here. Principal photography is expected to begin on REMINISCENCE on October 21st in New Orleans and Miami, which will give Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan plenty of time to complete the third season of Westworld.