Alison Brie, Dan Stevens To Star In Dave Franco Directing Debut ‘The Rental’

EXCLUSIVE: Dave Franco is set to make his directing debut with the horror thriller The Rental, and Alison Brie and Dan Stevens will star with Sheila Vand and Jeremy Allen White. The film will be fully financed by Black Bear Pictures, which is producing along with Franco’s Ramona Films. Shooting begins April in Oregon.

Franco & Joe Swanberg wrote the script. Producing is Ramona’s Vince Jolivette, Elizabeth Haggard, and Dave Franco, alongside Black Bear’s Ben Stillman and Teddy Schwarzman. Joe Swanberg and Chris Storer are also producing and Black Bear’s Michael Heimler is executive producing along with Sean Durkin.

The Rental is a character-driven horror thriller about two couples who rent a vacation home for what should be a celebratory weekend get-away.

Franco confirmed for Deadline and said he “couldn’t be more excited about partnering with Black Bear and to be working with such an amazing group of actors for my directorial debut.”

Franco’s most recent credits as an actor are If Beale Street Could Talk and The Disaster Artist. Brie starred in the latter film as well as Glow and The Post, and Stevens is coming off Legion and Beauty and the Beast while Vand’s credits include A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night and Argo and White’s include Shameless and Homecoming.

Black Bear is currently in production on The Friend, starring Dakota Johnson, Jason Segal, and Casey Affleck, and in pre-production on J Blakeson’s I Care A Lot, with Rosamund Pike attached. Black Bear starts production this week on Little Fish, the Chad Hartigan-directed film that stars Olivia Cooke and Jack O’Connell.

Ramona just finished the Janizca Bravo-directed Zola, which A24 will release.