Martin Freeman will star as a conflicted teacher opposite Jenna Ortega’s alluring student in the dark high school drama Miller’s Girl – for which a trailer has just dropped.
The Lionsgate film is set to be in cinemas from January 26. Dagmara DomiÅczyk and Bashir Salahuddin play colleagues, discouraging Freeman’s Jonathan Miller, who appears to be helpless against his attraction to Ortega’s 18-year-old Cairo Sweet.
Gideon Adlon and Christine Adams also have roles in the film, which has been written and directed by Jade Halley Bartlett.
Freeman, best known for roles in The Office, Sherlock and The Hobbit, adopts an uncharacteristic American accent to play the role. This has shades of Colin Firth’s turn as a teacher in the 2009 film A Single Man.
Ortega, 21, best known for the eponymous Wednesday in the Netflix series, is shown in the trailer to be a talented writer under the tutelage of her professor. From there, she begins to taunt him with a game of truth or dare.
The official synopsis reads: “A talented young writer embarks on a creative odyssey when her teacher assigns a project that entangles them both in an increasingly complex web.
“As lines blur and their lives intertwine, professor and protégé must confront their darkest selves while straining to preserve their individual sense of purpose and the things they hold most dear.”
The screenplay has been in the works for some time and featured on Hollywood’s 2016 Blacklist which gives studios the chance to option projects. Lionsgate has since jumped on board and both Freeman and Ortega were recruited earlier this year.
US writer, director and actress Bartlett has not written or starred in any significant works to date — and Miller’s Girl will be her directorial debut. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are both attached as producers with their company Point Grey Pictures.
Freeman recently won an International Emmy Award for his performance in the BBC series The Responder.
Ortega, meanwhile, has left her role in the Scream franchise. This was after Melissa Barrera was dropped from the slasher film franchise when the production company deemed her recent pro-Palestinian social media posts to be antisemitic.
