For Abbie Cornish, stardom seems to be just out of reach but is something that is undeniably on the horizon. She broke out in the Aussie drama “Somersault” opposite Sam Worthington, garnered well deserved acclaim for her turn in Jane Campion‘s “Bright Star” and used that good word to land roles in the sleeper hit “Limitless,” the disaster “Sucker Punch” and perhaps most intriguingly, Madonna‘s potential awards season bait “W.E.” Well, she hasn’t forgotten her indie roots and as you might remember, last fall she replaced Emily Blunt in “The Girl” and now we have our first look at her in the film.
Written and directed by relatively forgotten filmmaker David Riker who was hailed in 1998 for his debut picture “La Ciudad,” he returns behind the camera for the first time in thirteen years and it sounds like a gritty little piece. “It’s the story of a 25-year-old Texan girl who lives quite close to the Mexican border,” Cornish told us about the film this spring. “She has a five-year-old son that she’s lost to the welfare system, she sees an opportunity to make money bringing illegal immigrants across the border. So she does it as a one-off and during this incident in a river, she’s left with the responsibility of a 9-year-old girl. So it’s her journey with a 9-year-old Mexican girl through Mexico to get her home.”
Moreover, the film will find Cornish trying her hand at a new language. “I’m prepping more on this film than I have on any other film before. The only one that would come close in regards to preparation is ‘Sucker Punch’ but that was very much physical preparation, because we trained for three months before we started filming. 70 percent of my dialogue is in Spanish. I don’t know how to speak Spanish, if only the NZT drug was real!” she told us, referring to the smart drug in “Limitless” that allows its users to unlock the other 90 percent of their brain and therefore unleash an intelligence that makes learning new languages an afternoon task.
Filming recently wrapped on the project and it will find Cornish co-starring with newcomer Maritza Santigo (also pictured) and Will Patton. No word on release dates yet, but it seems like something that is a no brainer for Sundance next year. [ScreenDaily]
