Liam Neeson, Georgina Campbell & Lesley Manville To Hit 'Cold Storage'

As the 2023 Cannes Film Festival heads to France with new hot packages, it's time to check in on some of those offerings from 2022 that are finally going into production. Cold Storage, for instance, was initially announced back in May 2022 as one of the many "Hot Packages" arriving at the festival, meaning that the subject matter or the actors (or a combination of the above) would make it a possible contender to turn into a major project down the line. The StudioCanal project was set to star Irish actor Liam Neeson (Widows) and American Stranger Things breakout star Joe Keery, helmed by British director Jonny Campbell (Am I Being Unreasonable?).

A year later, principal photography on the film is finally underway, and the cast has filled out to feature a few more PBS favorites, including Georgina Campbell (Broadchurch) and Lesley Manville (Magpie Murders). The movie is based on the novel of the same name from Jurassic Park's David Koepp, which he then adapted into a screenplay, and will also star American Sosie Bacon (yes, daughter of Kevin), who was recently seen co-starring with Kate Winslet in Mare of Easttown. The transatlantic production is filming Morocco and Italy, making this an international production.

Koepp's novel  is described as a "darkly comedic sci-fi-action film [that] will chart a deadly micro-organism that will stop at nothing to spread." StudioCanal is fully financing the film, with Zombieland producer Gavin Polone heading it up.   

Here’s the official synopsis for the film adaptation of Cold Storage:

Several decades ago, a highly infectious, constantly mutating micro-organism — capable of extinction-level destruction — was contained in a military facility. In the present day, the military has sealed the facility’s lowest sublevel, selling the remaining space to a self-storage company. As temperatures rise underground, the micro-organism finds a way to escape — and if left to spread, it will soon uncontrollably multiply around the world. The fate of humanity now rests on a retired bioterror operative and two unlikely heroes employed in the facility, who are caught in a race against time to destroy the organism and save mankind.

As production began in March 2023, Koepp put out a statement: “Cold Storage has everything I’d want to see in a movie — it’s scary, funny, exhilarating, surprising, and riotously entertaining. Gavin, Jonny, and I have huge ambitions for this and are so excited to get cracking with our partners at Studiocanal.”

Cold Storage is expected to be part of StudioCanal’s 2024 slate of film releases.