Shadow and Act has confirmed that Titans and Us star Anna Diop has been cast in the lead/title role for Nikyatu Jusu’s upcoming psychological horror film, Nanny.
The film is being produced and financed stay Gold Features, Topic Studios and LinLay Productions had teamed up to finance and produce. It will be Jusu’s feature directorial debut. She also wrote the script.
Here’s the description: A timely thriller that puts the immigrant story front and center, NANNY follows Aisha (played by Diop), an undocumented nanny who takes a job caring for the privileged child of a wealthy Manhattan family on the Upper East Side in the hopes that she may earn enough money to bring her six-year-old son from West Africa to live with her in New York. As Aisha prepares for the arrival ofher young son, a violent supernatural presence invades her reality, threatening the “American Dream” she so painstakingly pieced together. The film’s use of West African folklore breathes fresh air into the genre, illustrating ways in which this aspirational dream can torment one’s reality.
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The project was initially selected as a screenplay for the 2019 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Lab & Summit and Sundance’s 2020 Writer’s Lab and the 2020 Director’s Lab. The script was also featured on the 2020 Blacklist. and has been recognized as part of the 35 projects chosen for the 2020 Creative Capital Awards.
Nikkia Moulterie and Stay Gold Features’ Daniela Taplin Lundberg are producing. Executive producing are Maria Zuckerman, Ryan Heller and Michael Bloom for Topic Studios; Rebecca Cammarata of Stay Gold Features; Sumalee Montano and Grace Lay of LinLay Productions. Jusu will also executive produce.
Production kicks off this month in New York City.
