Angelina Jolie is attached to star in the adaptation of the novel “The Kept,” to which Imperative Entertainment recently acquired the rights.
Jolie will also produce with Alice Birch penning the adaptation.
Based on the 2014 James Scott novel, the story is set in the winter of 1897, and follows a trio of killers that descends upon an isolated farm in upstate New York. Midwife Elspeth Howell returns home to the carnage: her husband and four of her children, murdered. Before she can discover her remaining son Caleb, alive and hiding the kitchen pantry, another shot rings out over the snow-covered valley. Caleb, who is 12 years old, must tend to his mother until she recovers enough for them to take to the frozen wilderness in search of the men responsible.
The novel was originally published in 2014 by HarperCollins Publishers.
Imperative Entertainment’s Dan Friedkin and Bradley Thomas will also produce. Imperative Entertainment’s head of film, Jillian Apfelbaum, will oversee development and production.
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Jolie recently wrapped the sequel to “Maleficent” and is now currently filming “Come Away” opposite David Oyelowo. She also voiced one of the characters in Disney’s “The One and Only Ivan.” She is repped by UTA.
Birch most recently penned the pic “Lady MacBeth.” She is represented by UTA and United Agents in the U.K.
Imperative Entertainment is currently in production on “The Mule,” which is co-produced and directed by Clint Eastwood and stars Bradley Cooper and Eastwood.
