Sophie Thatcher, Erin Kellyman, and Joe Alwyn have been cast in Cavendish, a period action-thriller set during the English witch hunts of 1645, with director Christopher Andrews — whose debut feature Bring Them Down won the Douglas Hickox Award for Outstanding Debut Director at the British Independent Film Awards — writing and directing. Cornerstone will handle international sales and distribution, launching the project at Cannes. CAA Media Finance is handling domestic rights.
Thatcher plays a privileged young bride accused of witchcraft on her wedding day and pursued by a ruthless witch hunter played by Alwyn. Forced into an uneasy alliance with Kellyman’s sharp-witted poacher — a woman living on the margins of society — the two fight back, turning their powerlessness into strength through violence, wit, and defiance. The film is billed as blending visceral action with sharp, unexpected humor.
The production draws together a pedigree of award-winning British independent cinema. Producers include BAFTA winners Ivana MacKinnon and Emily Leo of Wild Swim Films — whose credits include How to Have Sex and Beast — alongside Rosa Attab and Jacqueline De Croy of January Films, whose past work includes You Were Never Really Here and I, Daniel Blake, and Polish company Madants, which produced The Brutalist. The film was developed in collaboration with BBC Film and also received funding from the Polish Film Institute’s cash rebate program, with production set to begin in Poland in September.
Cornerstone’s Alison Thompson and Mark Gooder described the project as a rare British action thriller that “feels this fresh, entertaining and original,” praising its “bold subversion of traditional female roles” and calling it “a real page-turner with a wicked sense of humour.”
All three leads arrive with strong recent momentum. Thatcher stars in Heretic and Companion, and will next appear in Nicolas Winding Refn’s Her Private Hell, premiering at Cannes next month, and the final season of Yellowjackets, due in late 2026. Kellyman recently appeared in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and holds a role in the Hulu pilot Southern Bastards. Alwyn earned acclaim for his performances in Hamnet and The Brutalist.
Andrews’ debut feature Bring Them Down holds an 89% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes and received a Special Presentation slot at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2024. Cavendish marks his second feature and his first foray into historical genre filmmaking.
