AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND (Thursday 20 April 2023): Michael Smiley (Kill List, “Bad Sisters,” The Lobster), and Nell Fisher (Evil Dead Rise, Northspur, Choose Love) will star alongside previously announced Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings, Come to Daddy, “Yellowjackets”), in the family adventure comedy Bookworm. Production is set to commence in Aotearoa from director Ant Timpson (Come to Daddy) and written by Toby Harvard (Come to Daddy, The Greasy Strangler).

Mister Smith Entertainment will continue international sales at the upcoming 2023 Cannes Market next month.

Bookworm tells the story of 12-year-old Mildred (Fisher) whose life is turned upside down when her estranged, washed-up American magician father, Strawn Wise (Wood), comes to look after her. Hoping to entertain the bookish tween, Strawn takes Mildred camping in the notoriously rugged New Zealand wilderness, and the pair embark on the ultimate test of family bonding – a quest to find the mythological beast known as the Canterbury Panther.

Award-winning Irish actor and comedian, Michael Smiley, recently had a starring role in the internationally acclaimed Apple+ TV dark comedy series “Bad Sisters.” He previously won a BIFA award for Best Supporting Actor in the feature Kill List. Smiley also headlined the period crime series “Dead Still” which was nominated for 7 IFTAs at the 17th Irish Film & Television including Best Drama and Best Director. His recent feature films include Gunpowder Milkshake and The Silent Twins.

British / New Zealander Nell Fisher stars in upcoming feature Evil Dead Rise, the fifth installment of the cult horror classic directed by Lee Cronin, to be released worldwide by Warner Bros. later this month. Screen highlights include the post-apocalyptic action feature film Northspur, where she played the role of Tia; Netflix’s first interactive rom-com, Choose Love, opposite Laura Marano, Scott Michael Foster and Avan Jogiam, and directed by Stuart McDonald; and Season 3 of “My Life is Murder,” opposite Lucy Lawless.

Bookworm is made with investment from the New Zealand Film Commission, the New Zealand Screen Production Grant, Talon Entertainment Finance Inc, Orogen Entertainment and financed in association with Kiwibank Limited, Screen CanterburyNZ and Images & Sound. Mister Smith Entertainment is handling international sales. CAA Media Finance, which is arranging financing for the film, represents US rights. Rialto Distribution will distribute the film across Australia and New Zealand.

No stranger to creating films in Aotearoa, Wood is looking forward to returning to the country and rekindling his creative partnership with Timpson.

Wood says: “I couldn’t be more excited to return to New Zealand to both get the creative band back together with Ant Timpson, but also reconnect with the country I’ve missed so much.”

Bookworm will be the second collaboration between Wood and Timpson, with the pair working together on Come to Daddy in 2018.

"The sheer joy I had working with my friend Elijah on Come to Daddy was so delicious, there was no way I wasn’t coming back for seconds,” says Timpson. “In Bookworm we’re going to put him through the ringer again, except this time he’s at the mercy of a precocious 12-year-old and the rugged landscapes of the Canterbury region.”

Bookworm is produced by Emma Slade, Roxi Bull and Victoria Dabbs of Firefly Films and Mette-Marie Kongsved and Laura Tunstall of Nowhere. It is executive produced by Steven Demmler of Talon Entertainment Finance, Blair Ward and Anders Erdén of Orogen Entertainment, and Kelly Rogers and Kevin Gordon of Rialto Distribution.

Michael Smiley is represented by B-Side Management in the UK. Nell Fisher is represented by Gail Cowan Management (NZ), Untitled Entertainment (US) and United Agents (UK). Elijah Wood is represented by CAA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, Meyer & Downs, and Narrative.

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