Evan Mock and Chloe East have been swept up by Headhunters.
The model and Gossip Girl star and Heretic breakout are set to join Kevin Costner and Daniel Zovatto on the film, due to start shooting January. Accomplished cinematographer Steven Holleran will make his feature directorial debut on the film based on an idea he originated. He and Costner then collaborated on the script, which is described as a mashup combining the “kinetic energy of surf culture with the suspense of horror.”
Headhunters casts Costner as Lazer, a washed-up American ex-pat with a mysterious past who finds himself living in Bali, Indonesia. Lazer recruits a group of surfers led by Bima, a local photographer, on a journey to an uncharted island to pioneer a “perfect wave.” To their surprise, the island is home to an ancient tribe of headhunters guarding the land at all costs. “What ensues is an adventure turned survival story of epic and bloody proportions on a tropical island which once seemed to be paradise… but is actually closer to hell,” per the official logline.
Costner is also producing through his Territory Pictures with Scott Steindorff and his Stone Village Films. In addition to Costner and Steindorff, the film is being produced by Costner’s partner at Territory Pictures Howard Kaplan, and Stone Village’s Dylan Russell, Lindsay Davis and Stacey Woods with Jenna Ajlouny taking co-producer credit. Eric Hays is on board as physical producer. Their team is rounded out by cinematographer Ericson Core, production design by Derek Hill and costume design by Lisa Lovaas.
Mock, best known as a model, fashion “it boy” and one of the stars of the rebooted Gossip Girl on Max, is repped by Paradigm, Canopy Media Partners, Initiative Group and Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner Auerbach Hynick Jaime LeVine Sample & Klein (Jeff Hynick). Headhunters will bring him close to home as he was born and raised in Hawaii and is considered a surf and skate insider. His other acting credits include Fantasmas.
East is coming off a critically acclaimed turn opposite Hugh Grant and Sophie Thatcher in Heretic, which opened this weekend. Her other credits include Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, Generation, Kevin (Probably) Saves the World, Liv and Maddie, Ice and True Blood. She’s repped by WME, Link Entertainment, Vault Entertainment and Felker Toczek Suddleson McGinnis Ryan.
