Searchlight Acquires Mona Fastvold’s ‘The Testament of Ann Lee’

Searchlight Pictures has acquired writer-director Mona Fastvold’s “The Testament Of Ann Lee,” for North America and most of the world, the company announced on Tuesday.

The musical starring Amanda Seyfried will be released theatrically at the end of this year.

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Directed and co-written by Mona Fastvold and co-starring Lewis Pullman, the film is a musical retelling of the founding of the controversial and often persecuted Christian sect and its colorful leader, with dancing and songs adapted from real life Shaker hymns.

In his review of the film, TheWrap’s Ben Croll wrote: “A work of unshakable, near-pyrrhic zeal about a subject defined by the same qualities, this intimate and maximalist musical resembles little else at this year’s Venice Film Festival, or in the cinema of 2025. Fastvold fuses form with function to meet an 18th-century religious leader on her own terms, delivering a thrillingly modern incantation of an antiquated tune.”

Seyfried previously said there was nothing easy about the role. However, the challenges she faced portraying the real-life founder of the Shakers taught her she is able “to do things I didn’t think I could do.”

“You name it,” Seyfried told TheWrap’s Steve Pond at the Toronto International Film Festival. “Getting over my own insecurities with playing somebody who had so much power and felt so strong-willed and someone so committed and someone so devoted. That’s it. That’s not me. But there’s so many qualities about her I could relate to.”

CAA Media Finance brokered the deal with Searchlight execs Chan Phung, Paul Hoffman, and Don Hardison.

“The Testament Of Ann Lee” made its world premiere to critical acclaim at the Venice Film Festival, currently holding a 90% Rotten Tomatoes score.

Deadline first reported the news.

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