‘Macbeth’ Creative Team Justin Kurzel and Michael Lesslie Find ‘Haven’ Together

EXCLUSIVE– Michael Lesslie and Justin Kurzel, the writer-director team behind the critically acclaimed adaptation of Macbeth starring Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, are working together again on Haven. The project, which Kurzel and Lesslie have actually been developing since before Macbeth, is a psychological chiller set in a mental facility although other plot details are being kept under wraps for now.

Lesslie and Kurzel are fast becoming each other’s go to creative partner. The two will next reunite with Fassbender on Assassin’s Creed. Haven still has fluid dates and would have to wait for Kurzel to complete his directing duties on the New Regency live-action adaptation of the Ubisoft video game. Element Pictures’ Ed Guiney and Lee Magiday are producing Haven. Film4 has developed the project.

Guiney and Magiday are coming off the back of a spectacular Cannes, where Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster, which they produced alongside Ceci Dempsey and Lanthimos, earned strong critical notices and a domestic sale to Alchemy. Guiney also saw the Lenny Abrahamson-directed Room, starring Brie Laursen, sell out. Guiney produced alongside Canadian producing partner No Trace Camping’s David Gross. FilmNation were handling international sales on the film, which is based on the bestselling 2010 novel by Emma Donoghue, who adapted the screenplay about a woman and her 5-year-old son, Jack, who live in confinement in a 10-foot by 10-foot single room. Room is the only home Jack has ever known, but as his curiosity is building alongside Ma’s own desperation, she knows it cannot contain either indefinitely. A24 acquired the rights last year in a deal brokered by UTA.

Lesslie is repped by Casarotto Ramsay & Associates, and WME. Kurzel is repped by CAA and HLA Management.