EXCLUSIVE: Douglas Smith (Big Little Lies), Mark O’Brien (Arrival), Rebecca Liddiard (Alias Grace) and Vinessa Antoine (Diggstown,) have been cast opposite Amanda Seyfried (The Dropout) in Seven Veils, the new feature from filmmaker Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter).

The project wrapped principal photography in Toronto last week.  

Seven Veils follows Jeanine (Seyfried), an earnest theatre director, who has been given the daunting task of remounting her former mentor’s most famous work, the opera Salome. Haunted by dark and disturbing memories from her past, Jeanine allows her repressed trauma to color the present as she re-enters the opera world after so many years away.  

Smith and Seyfried previously worked together on HBO series Big Love, playing siblings Ben and Sarah Henrickson.

Pic is written and directed by Egoyan, who also produces alongside Niv Fichman (Enemy), Simone Urdl (The Captive), Fraser Ash (BlackBerry) and Kevin Krikst (BlackBerry).

The project is a Rhombus Media and Ego Film Arts production, produced with the participation of Telefilm Canada, in association with Cinetic Media, IPR.VC, XYZ Films and the Canadian Opera Company. 

XYZ’s Aram Tertzakian, Nate Bolotin, Maxime Cottray and Nick Spicer will executive-produce, alongside John Sloss of Cinetic Media, and Noah Segal and Adrian Love of Elevation Pictures.  XYZ co-financed and is handling world sales. Elevation will distribute in Canada.

XYZ Films, IPR.VC and Rhombus Media recently produced and co-financed Matt Johnson’s Berlin Film Festival title Blackberry which was acquired by IFC Films last year.

“I couldn’t be more excited about the wonderful actors we have to support Amanda’s complex role,” said Egoyan. “The ensemble we have created around the central role of Jeanine represents some of the finest young talent we have.” 

Smith’s recent credits include the upcoming feature film Horizon from director Kevin Costner, Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling, HBO’s Big Little Lies, and TNT’s The Alienist. 

O’Brien can be seen as Thomas Milligan on the most recent season of Perry Mason now airing on HBO. Previous feature credits include Justin Chon’s Blue Bayou, Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival, and Searchlight’s Ready or Not.

Liddiard will next appear as Karen Tillman in the upcoming season of FX’s Fargo. Previous credits include Netflix’s Alias Grace, Josh Brandon’s A Thousand Little Cuts, Ricky Tollman’s Run This Town, and CBC’s Frankie Drake Mysteries.

Antoine recently played the lead role of Marcie Diggs in CBC’s ongoing series Diggstown. Her other previous credits include Netflix’s Ginny & Georgia, the Paramount+ series Interrogation, and Fox’s The Resident. 

Smith is repped by The Gersh Agency, GGA and More / Medavoy Management. O’Brien is repped by UTA, The Characters Talent Agency and Thruline Entertainment. Liddiard is repped by The Gersh Agency and Noble Caplan Abrams. Antoine is repped by Buchwald and The Characters Talent Agency.