Berlin: Octavia Spencer, Quvenzhane Wallis and Diane Kruger Join ‘Fathers and Daughters’ (EXCLUSIVE)



Octavia Spencer, “Beasts of the Southern Wild” star Quvenzhane Wallis and Diane Kruger have joined Voltage Pictures’ “Fathers and Daughters” opposite Russell Crowe, Amanda Seyfried, and Aaron Paul.

“Fathers and Daughters,” a Black List script penned by Brad Desch, is a love story between a father and daughter living 25 years apart in New York City with Gabriele Muccino directing. Voltage is handling foreign sales on the picture and will be selling the project at the European Film Market in Berlin.

Besides Voltage, production companies are Busted Shark Prods., Fear of God Films and Andrea Leone Films. Producers are Craig J. Flores and Nicolas Chartier of Voltage and Sherryl Clark of Busted Shark; exec producers are Crowe, Keith Rodger and Romilda De Luca. Andrea Leone is co-producing.

“Fathers and Daughters” is in pre-production in Pittsburgh.

Spencer will play the spirited head of the psychiatric clinic where Seyfried’s character counsels troubled children. Wallis will play a patient who hasn’t spoken a word for a year since her mother was murdered while Kruger will play the sister-in law of Crowe’s character, who blames him for the death of her sister.

Crowe, who came on board the project last fall, is portraying a famous novelist and widower, struggles with mental illness in 1988 as he tries to raise his 5-year-old daughter. Seyfried will play the  30-year-old daughter in present-day Manhattan where she battles the demons that stem from her troubled childhood.

Spencer was most recently seen in “Fruitvale Station” and is currently shooting the James Brown biopic “Get on Up” with Chadwick Boseman, Viola Davis and Dan Aykroyd.

Kruger can next be seen starring in the upcoming Terrence Malick-produced film “The Better Angels.,” which premiered at Sundance, and she just made her TV debut in the FX drama “The Bridge.”

Wallis, nominated last year for an Oscar for “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” recently wrapped the remake of Sony’s “Annie” with Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz. She also appears in “12 Years a Slave.”

Spencer is repped by WME and Viewpoint and her attorney is Karl Austen at Jackoway Tyerman Wertheimer Austen Mandelbaum Morris & Klein. Wallis is repped by ICM Partners. Kruger is repped by UTA, The Artist Partnership and Jason Weinberg at Untitled.