Karyn Kusama’s ‘The Invitation’ The Next Gamechanger Pic

EXCLUSIVE: Filming in the Hollywood Hills has wrapped on The Invitation, the latest feature from Girlfight‘s Sundance award-winner Karyn Kusama and the helmer’s first since 2009’s Jennifer’s Body. It’s also the second feature to be backed by femme-focused Gamechanger Films, the film fund established last year to finance narrative features helmed by women in an effort to equalize gender disparity in film. The first Gamechanger project, road tripper Land Ho! co-directed by Martha Stephens and Aaron Katz, sold out of Sundance in January. Sony Classics opened the pic on Friday.

Gamechanger financed The Invitation with Lege Artis, with Gamechanger’s Mynette Louie, Julie Parker Benello, Dan Cogan, Geralyn Dreyfous, and Wendy Ettinger coming aboard as exec producers alongside Lege Artis’ Tony Mancilla and Aubin Paul. “Gamechanger decided to finance The Invitation for two primary reasons: a great script and a strong, versatile director in Karyn Kusama,” Louie told Deadline. “This is a suspenseful story that contains intense emotional drama, action, and blood — all of which Karyn has previously shown herself to be adept at. We loved her approach to the script, and wanted to empower her to make this film on her own creative terms.”

Logan Marshall-Green (Prometheus) stars as Will, a haunted man attending a dinner party at the house he once called home who becomes gripped with paranoia that his ex-wife and her new husband are harboring an insidious agenda. Michiel Huisman (Game Of Thrones), Emayatzy Corinealdi (Middle Of Nowhere), Tammy Blanchard (Rabbit Hole), Lindsay Burdge (A Teacher), and John Carroll Lynch (Zodiac) also star in the thriller scripted by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi (Ride Along, Clash Of The Titans), reuniting with Kusama after 2005’s Æon Flux. Pic is produced by Martha Griffin (Girlfight, Æon Flux) and genre specialists XYZ Films. XYZ and ICM Partners packaged the film and are repping domestic while XYZ handles international rights.