An American tourist goes looking for the English seaside town that shaped his favorite reclusive author, and finds a murderous secret society running the place. Simon Pegg will play the author and Paul Giamatti the tourist in Boutique, a horror thriller that Manifest Pictures is taking to international buyers at the American Film Market.
Jim Gavin writes and directs. It is his first feature as a director, after creating the AMC series Lodge 49. Giamatti produces through Touchy Feely Films with Dan Carey, alongside Chris Dodds, Charlie Alderman and Greg Field for Prospect, which is financing, and James Harris and Mark Lane of Tea Shop Productions. Jacob Jaffke, a producer on MaXXXine, is an executive producer.
“Boutique is dark, hysterical, and utterly twisted,” Prospect said in a statement, calling the film “Jim Gavin’s gothic fever dream.”
Giamatti Keeps Turning Up in Horror
Giamatti’s genre credits run back to Don Coscarelli’s John Dies at the End, and he was attached to star in Eli Roth’s Hostel series until Peacock passed on it earlier this month. Boutique puts him in the lead and on the producing team at once.
Pegg Has Visited a Village Like This
A quiet English town with a murderous conspiracy running underneath it is also the engine of Hot Fuzz, which Pegg co-wrote with Edgar Wright and starred in. His other obvious genre credit is Shaun of the Dead, the 2004 zombie comedy from the same pair. Playing the recluse whose books draw a stranger to that coast is a different job from either of them.
Manifest boarded international sales ahead of the market, and UTA Independent Film Group is handling domestic rights. Neither a start date for filming nor a release has been set.
Fan verdict and scores by iHorror