4/21/2015 by Etan Vlessing The Hollywood Reporter
The 'Orphan Black' star will play a bipolar woman, and the 'Downton Abbey' star will play a grief-stricken man. The two characters fall in love and struggle to forge a simple life.
Writer-director Joey Klein has found leads for The Other Half, his debut feature: Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany and her real-life boyfriend, Tom Cullen.
Maslany will play Emily, a bipolar woman who falls in love with Nickie (Cullen), a grief-stricken man with whom she struggles to forge a simple life. The ensemble cast includes Suzanne Clement (Mommy), who will play Emily's stepmother; Deragh Campbell (I Used to Be Darker) as her friend; and Mark Rendall (30 Days of Night) as Nickie's friend.
The Canadian film from indie producer Motel Pictures will shoot in Toronto in July, 2015. Nicole Hilliard-Forde is producing, with David Miller, Julia Sereny and Jennifer Kawaja sharing the executive producer credits.
Klein directed Maslany in an earlier short film, Waiting for You. The Orphan Black star is back on BBC America and Space, with the third season of the Canadian-made clone drama now underway.
Maslany also is co-starring alongside The Amazing Spider-Man 2 star Dane DeHaan in the indie romancer Two Lovers and a Bear, set to shoot in Nunavut in the Canadian Arctic. Cullen is best known for his roles on Downton Abbey (as Lord Gillingham) and in Andrew Haigh’s Weekend.
Mongrel Media will release The Other Half in Canada.