Embankment Films has revealed that Oscar-winner Kathy Bates (Misery), Maggie Smith (Downton Abbey), and Laura Linney (Ozark) will feature as the top-line cast of the film, which centres on three working-class women from Dublin who embark on a pilgrimage to Lourdes.
The casting news is also accompanied by a key pre-sale for the film with Lionsgate securing the UK distribution rights from Embankment Films ahead of further talks with distributors when it is showcased at Cannes virtual Marché du Film next week.
The story is described as a "joyful and hilarious journey of a group of riotous working-class women from Dublin, whose pilgrimage to Lourdes in France leads them to discover each other’s friendship and their own personal miracles."
The film, which will be directed by Thaddeus O’Sullivan (Ordinary Decent Criminal), was penned by Jimmy Smallhorne (2x4, Darklands), Timothy Prager (Silent Witness), and Josh Maurer (Papillion). Production is scheduled to begin in April 2021 with a planned release for the film expected in 2022.
Plans to get the project funded and off the ground have been a long time in the making with actors Bates and Smith said to have been previously attached to the project as far back as 2004 when the project was previously titled, Pushers Needed. However, the UK-based sales, financing, and packaging outfit, Embankment has successfully raised the full finance needed to greenlight production in 2021.
The Miracle Club will be Executive Produced by Vikings producer James Flynn, with Chris Curling of Zephyr Films, and Maurer and Alixandre Witlin of City Films Entertainment producing.