Lena Headey, Yara Shahidi, Isabela Merced, Lana Condor, Millicent Simmonds & Iris Apatow Set For Buzzy Action Pic ‘Ballerina Overdrive’ From David Leitch & Kelly McCormick’s 87North: EFM Hot Package

EXCLUSIVE: Lena Headey (Game of Thrones), Yara Shahidi (Grown-ish), Isabela Merced (Father of the Bride), Lana Condor (Moonshot), Millicent Simmonds (A Quiet Place) and Iris Apatow (The Bubble) are set to lead buzzy action-thriller Ballerina Overdrive, which will be produced by Deadpool, Bullet Train, John Wick and Fast and the Furious director David Leitch.

The Witcher: Blood Origin director Vicky Jewson will direct the feature about a troupe of ballerinas who find themselves fighting for survival as they attempt to escape from a remote inn after their bus breaks down on the way to a dance competition. Filming is set to commence in Serbia in the second quarter of 2023.

The fun project is being launched ahead of the EFM by Vincent Maraval and Kim Fox’s The Veterans for international and CAA Media Finance for domestic. It’s set to be one of the market’s hottest packages.

Based on a script by Kate Freund (Afterlife), 87North’s Kelly McCormick, Leitch and Annie Marter will produce. Stunt designers Heidi Moneymaker and Renae Moneymaker — whose credits include Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Project Artemis — are attached to create the film’s dance-based action choreography. Jenny Jue (Okja) cast the film. 

RELATED: Deadline’s Full EFM Coverage

87North is the production and action design company founded by director-producer Leitch and producer McCormick whose character-driven action tentpoles — including Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, Nobody, Bullet Train, Violent Night and John Wick—have earned more than $2.5 billion at the box office.

Under its first-look deal with Universal, 87North is currently in production on The Fall Guy with Leitch directing and McCormick and Leitch producing. Set for a 2024 theatrical release, the big-screen take on the 1980s television show centered on a stuntman stars Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Winston Duke, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hannah Waddingham and Stephanie Hsu.   

The Veterans’ EFM slate includes Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez starring Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez; Alexander Skarsgård’s The Pack; David Yates’ Pain Hustlers starring Emily Blunt; Christophe Gans’ Return to Silent Hill; Sam Yates’ Magpie starring Daisy Ridley; and Warwick Thornton’s The New Boy starring Cate Blanchett.       

Headey is repped by CAA and TMT Entertainment Group; Shahidi by CAA, Principal Entertainment and the Nord Group; Merced by CAA and Peikhoff Mahan; Condor by CAA and Goodman, Genow, Schenckman, Smelkinson Christopher; Simmonds by WME, Untitled Entertainment, and Hansen, Jacobson, Teller, Hoberman, Warren, Richman, Rush, Kaller, Gellman, Meigs & Fox; and Apatow by UTA and Ziffren Brittenham.

Jewson is repped by Untitled Entertainment, WME, Cassarotto Ramsay & Associates, and Lichter, Grossman, Nichols, Adler, Feldman & Clark. Freund is repped by CAA and Ziffren Brittenham. 87North is represented by CAA and Johnson Shapiro Slewett & Kole.