Robin Wright Heads Into Wilderness for Directorial Film Debut ‘Land,’ With Sales to Start at Cannes

By Stewart Clarke

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Robin Wright will go off the grid in her feature film directorial debut, “Land.” She will also star in the movie, playing Edee Mathis, a woman consumed by grief who resolves to remove herself completely from life as she has known it.

Wright directed several installments of “House of Cards,” but this marks her first time behind the camera on a feature. has boarded international sales. It will kick off the sales effort at Cannes. Cinetic Media and CAA Media Finance will handle North American rights.

The film is based on the original screenplay by Jesse Chatham and Golden Globe nominee Liz Hannah (“The Post”). It will begin production this summer in Canada, in British Columbia.

Wright’s character, Mathis, is a cosmopolitan lawyer consumed by grief. With advice from online survivalists, she moves to the most unpopulated area in the U.S., living in a cabin in the Shoshone National Forest in Wyoming. There, she must learn to hunt, fish and grow her food as she faces brutal winters, a challenging landscape and local wildlife that could kill her at any moment. In crossing paths with Joseph, a First Nations local, Edee begins to confront her demons.

“Land” was developed by Allyn Stewart (“Sully”) with casting director Lora Kennedy (“Wonder Woman”). It is financed by New York-based production entity Big Beach.

It is produced by Stewart, Kennedy, Big Beach co-founder Peter Saraf (“Little Miss Sunshine”) and Leah Holzer (“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”). Marc Turtletaub will executive produce for Big Beach, with Cinetic Media’s John Sloss and Steve Farneth and Iron Circle Pictures’ Heather Rae.

“Robin proved herself a tour de force taking in hand ‘House of Cards’ as a director as well as its lead actor,” said HanWay Films MD Gabrielle Stewart. “She speaks very eloquently and passionately about wanting to tell the story of a woman’s journey through loss and pain, where only by giving herself to nature can she find a path to inner peace and redemption.”

Wright is represented by CAA, Sugar 23, and Ziffren Brittenham.