Evil Dead Rise actress Nell Fisher and Bad Sisters actor Michael Smiley are set to join Elijah Wood in Bookworm, a new family adventure comedy from New Zealand director Ant Timpson (Come to Daddy).
Fisher will play Mildred, a 12-year-old girl whose life is turned upside down when her estranged, washed-up American magician father, Strawn Wise (Wood), comes to look after her. Hoping to bond with the tween, Strawn takes Mildred on an ill-advised camping trip into the rugged New Zealand wilderness in a quest to find the mythological beast known as the Canterbury Panther, named after the region on New Zealand’s South Island.
The project will reteam Wood with Come to Daddy director Timpson and will see the Lord of the Rings actor return to New Zealand to shoot.
“In Bookworm we’re going to put him through the wringer again, except this time he’s at the mercy of a precocious 12-year-old and the rugged landscapes of the Canterbury region,” said Timpson.
