Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Kiernan Shipka, Cole Sprouse Star In Aaron Katz-Directed Toronto Market Package ‘Blood Ties’

EXCLUSIVE: Gugu Mbatha-Raw (The Morning Show), Kiernan Shipka (Mad Men) and Riverdale’s Cole Sprouse are attached to star in Blood Ties, a drama based on a Nathan Heller article in the New Yorker. Aaron Katz (Gemini) wrote the script and will direct.

Automatik’s Fred Berger (La La Land) is producing.

Mbatha-Raw plays Detective Reese Rezek, who obsessively investigates the brutal murders of Nancy and Derek Haysom, a seemingly ordinary couple in suburban Virginia. As Reese unravels dark possibilities behind their deaths, two suspects emerge: their daughter, Lizzy (Shipka), and her boyfriend, Jens (Sprouse). Before they can be arrested, the young couple flees for Europe, drawing Reese into an international manhunt and a years-long search for the truth that spanned from 1985-91.

Endeavor Content is handling worldwide sales and introducing the project at the Toronto Film Festival market.

Katz is repped by CAA, Grandview, and im Gilio at Sloane, Offer; Mbatha-Raw is Anonymous Content, CAA, Curtis Brown, and Steve Warren and Gretchen Rush at Hansen, Jacobson; Shipka is Anonymous Content, WME, and Jason Sloane and Lon Sorensen at Sloane, Offer; Sprouse is WME, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, and David Markman at DLA Piper.

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