Benjamin Walker Toplines Thriller ‘Shimmer Lake’; Oren Uziel Directs From His Black List Script

22 Jump Street co-scripter Oren Uziel is making his feature directing debut with Shimmer Lake, a script he wrote that made the 2009 Black List. Benjamin Walker stars in the crime thriller told backwards — reversing day by day through a week as it follows a local sheriff’s quest to unlock the mystery of three small-town criminals (Rainn Wilson, Wyatt Russell, Mark Rendall) and a bank heist gone wrong. Stephanie Sigman, Rob Corddry, Ron Livingston, Wyatt Russell, John Michael Higgins and Adam Pally also star.

The film from Footprint Features and Writ Large starts production late this month in Toronto. Britton Rizzio and Adam Saunders are producing Shimmer Lake, with Dan Bekerman, Steve Eddy and Youmi N. Ma as exec producers. The Exchange will be selling international rights at AFM next month.

Uziel, repped by WME and Writ Large, also penned the horror comedy Freaks Of Nature, which Sony opens October 30, and has Overnight in the works at Disney and the J.J. Abrams-produced God Particle at Paramount. Walker, who starred as the Great Emancipator in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, next appears in Ron Howard’s period drama In The Heart Of The Sea. He is with WME and Inspire Entertainment.