EXCLUSIVE: On the heels of her acclaimed directorial debut Passing, Rebecca Hall has found her next filmmaking vehicle in Four Days Like Sunday, a mother-daughter drama inspired by her own history, which she’s written to direct and will star in for See-Saw Films.
Set in the mid 1990s, the film follows 12-year-old Jane as she begins to rebel against her role as proxy-carer for her mother Sylvia (Hall), a recently divorced and ever so slightly fading Broadway diva. During a long weekend break between concert dates, Sylvia hosts Benton, Chris and Rahim, three male dancers from her current tour, at her anachronistically grand country house. She is also expecting the arrival of Dale, her handsome younger boyfriend. As Jane does her best to protect her mother from everything that threatens to disturb her delicate equilibrium, she moves quietly from childhood into something else-wiser, freer, and more alone.
Four Days Like Sunday is being developed with Film4, who will also exec produce and co-finance, and is being co-produced by Hall under her Flat Five Productions banner with Morgan Spector. Joanna Laurie is also producing, as are Iain Canning and Emile Sherman for See-Saw Films. Exec producers are Simon Gillis for See-Saw, Ollie Madden and Farhana Bhula for Film4, and Victoria Belfrage. Cross City Films and WME Independent are co-repping the film.
“When I wrote this film it came from a place of understanding that I couldn’t really do anything else until I made this story,” said Hall in a statement to Deadline. “It’s highly personal to me and I hope will express my sensibility, exuberance and ambition as a filmmaker. It is a story filled with comedy, music, emotion, colour and the nuanced and complicated relationship between a mother and child. It speaks to the bubble of reality that every family creates and the people and events that help a child see beyond them. I can’t wait to take it out of my head and onto the screen.”
Producer Laurie called the film “an iconic mother-daughter coming-of-age story that’s funny, poignant and hopeful – a producer’s dream. Four Days Like Sunday is a love letter to the camp and queer culture that gives our young heroine the safe space to triumphantly grow up and out into adulthood.”
Stated See-Saw’s Canning and Sherman, “We are honoured to be collaborating with Rebecca Hall on this rich and deeply moving story. We were completely mesmerised by Rebecca’s directorial debut ‘Passing’ and we are delighted to now be involved in the next step of her filmmaking career and bring this beautiful story to the screen.”
An adaptation of Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel also backed by Film4, Hall’s debut feature Passing is set in 1920s New York City, where the unexpected reunion of two high school friends, one black and the other white-passing, sparks a dangerous obsession that jeopardizes their carefully constructed lives. Starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga, the film world premiered to critical acclaim at Sundance before going on to release via Netflix, garnering four BAFTA nominations, a DGA Award nom for Hall, a Golden Globe nom and Independent Spirit Award win for Negga, and numerous other accolades.
As an actress, Hall has most recently been seen reprising her role of scientist Ilene Andrews in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Other recent projects include Prime Video’s Tales from the Loop and David Bruckner’s horror thriller The Night House. Next, Hall will be seen starring in BBC One’s The Listeners, also appearing as part of the starry ensemble of James L. Brooks’s Ella McCay.
Known for its work on prestige titles like The Power of the Dog and Slow Horses, See-Saw’s projects currently in production include the TV series Sweetpea for Sky, Apple Cider Vinegar for Netflix, and further seasons of Slow Horses and Heartstopper for Apple TV+ and Netflix, respectively. Currently, the company is also in partnership with Michael Ende Productions to develop and produce live-action films adapted from the classic Michael Ende novel The Neverending Story.
Coming off the release of the Oscar winners Poor Things and The Zone of Interest, among many other titles, Film4’s upcoming slate includes Yorgos Lanthimos’s Kinds of Kindness; Karan Kandhari’s Sister Midnight; Thea Gajic’s Surviving Earth; Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s Hot Milk; Oliver Hermanus’s The History of Sound; Dylan Southern’s The Thing with Feathers; John Crowley’s We Live in Time; Polly Findlay’s Midwinter Break; and Asif Kapadia’s 2073.
Hall is represented by Julian Belfrage Associates in London, WME, and attorney Gretchen Rush.
