Olivia Cooke - H 2015
AP ImagesIn her first deal since her breakout performance in the Sundance hit, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Olivia Cooke has signed on to star as the title character in Katie Says Goodbye, an indie drama overseen by the makers of Martha Marcy May Marlene.
Joining Cooke in the feature are The Killing star Mireille Enos, Christopher Abbott, Jim Belushi and Mary Steenburgen.
Sean Durkin, the filmmaker who wrote and directed Martha Marcy May Marlene and its producer Antonio Campos and Josh Mond are exec producing Katie. (Durkin and Campos also produced James White, which starred Abbott and was directed by Mond) Eric Schultz, Jacob Wasserman, Kimberly Parker and Carlo Sirtori are producing.
Wayne Roberts wrote the script and was encouraged to direct it by Durkin and Campos, whom he’s known since their days together at NYU film school.
Katie centers on a 17-year-old waitress, played by Cooke, who attempts to overcome the hardships of poverty by prostituting herself in order to fulfill her dream of a new life in San Francisco.
Abbott will play Cooke’s mechanic love interest while Enos is Cooke’s mother, a woman with no mom instincts whatsoever.
Belushi plays one of Cooke’s clients and Steenburgen is the owner of the diner where Cooke works.
The feature, which will be a Relic Pictures production made in association with Parallell Cinema, is scheduled to begin production at the end of March in New Mexico.
Cooke can be seen on A&E’s Bates Motel and is coming off a strong 2014 in which she appeared in three movies, Ouija, The Quiet Ones and The Signal.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, which won both the audience award and the grand jury prize at Sundance, was scooped up by Fox Searchlight and opens June 12.
Cooke is repped by Gersh and Lena Roklin at Luber Roklin. Enos, who recently wrapped indie thriller You Were Never Here, is repped by CAA, Howard Green of Gartner/Green, and Stone, Meyer.
