Cate Blanchett To Star In Alice Birch's Directional Debut, Sweetsick

Searchlight Pictures announced today that two-time Academy Award® Winner Cate Blanchett will star in Sweetsick, to be directed and with an original screenplay by Alice Birch. The shoot will begin this fall in the United Kingdom and Greece and is being produced by Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell and Theo Barrowclough from House Productions alongside Blanchett and her Dirty Films banner. Lee Groombridge will also produce. Film4 will executive produce and co-finance. Sweetsick marks Birch's feature directorial debut.

Sweetsick follows a mercurial woman (Blanchett) with a strange and piercing gift - the ability to see what others most intimately need, often at great personal cost - who sets out on a journey home. Additional casting will be announced shortly.

Birch said, "I could not be more excited to be making my debut feature as a director with such an extraordinary team of filmmakers and collaborators. I am in the safest hands with Tessa Ross and her brilliant team at House, and am so proud to be working with Searchlight and Film4. To have the peerless Cate Blanchett at the centre of it is thrilling."

"We're all very big believers in Alice Birch and it's been wonderful to see that the fantastic team she's gathered around her, not least the amazing Cate, feel the same way - all drawn in by her bold, beautiful vision," added Ross.