“Doom Patrol” and “Cloak & Dagger” actor Miles Mussenden is set to co-lead alongside Britt Bankhead (“Winchester”) in mystery thriller Croatoan, Variety reports today. The thriller also marks the feature directorial debut by Bankhead.
Nico Tirozzi (Monster Summer), Grace Patterson (Slotherhouse), and Mike Markoff (Hit Man)also star in Croatoan.
Mussenden stars as “a father whose family road trip leads him to a desolate small town. After his son (Tirozzi) disappears, Bankhead’s character resorts to teaming with two detectives (Mussenden and Patterson) and parsing the community’s oddballs to investigate the local, supernatural legend of ‘Croatoan.’”
While that logline offers the only plot details revealed at this time, the film’s title brings the historical “Lost Colony” to mind. It refers to the Roanoke Colony established in 1585, which seemingly disappeared without a trace when a ship arrived in 1590 to find the colony abandoned with only the cryptic word “Croatoan” carved into a tree. More than a hundred English colonists had disappeared to an unknown fate, and the lack of answers has inspired no shortage of theories in the centuries since, especially of the paranormal variety.
“American Horror Story: Roanoke,” Stephen King’s Storm of the Century, and “Supernatural” are among some of the more prominent genre works that have explored this peculiar historical mystery. While Croatoan is described as a thriller, it feels safe to assume the supernatural legend will veer Mussenden’s character straight into horror territory.
Along with directing and starring in Croatoan, Bankhead co-wrote the screenplay with Jon Blaze. John Moio (The Ring Two, Escape from New York) has been recruited as a stunt coordinator.
Bankhead and Blaze produce, along with Patterson for Bankhead Productions. Bankhead and Patterson are executive producers, while Gabriella Hainline is line producer.
Principal photography is set to begin next month in Texas, so stay tuned for additional details on this project as they arrive.