Sean Penn’s Projected Picture Works To Produce Political Thriller ‘Killers & Diplomats’ Alongside Mill House Motion Pictures

Sean Penn’s recently launched production company Projected Picture Works has signed on to produce the political thriller Killers & Diplomats alongside Mill House Motion Pictures.

The film from writers Michael Nourse and John Tyler McClain, whose screenplay was featured on the 2021 Black List, is based on an article by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Raymond Bonner. Based on a true story, it picks up after four American missionary women are raped and murdered in 1980 El Salvador, following a young U.S. diplomat who cracks the case by cultivating an improbable source — risking everything to gather the key evidence.

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Pic was developed by Mill House Motion Pictures’ Jordan Foley and Jonathan Rosenthal, who will produce alongside Penn and his fellow Projected Picture Works founders, John Ira Palmer and John Wildermuth. Ray Bonner will exec produce alongside Yeardley Smith and Ben Cornwell of Paperclip Ltd. While it’s not yet clear who will direct the film, CAA Media Finance is arranging financing for the project and will represent its distribution rights.

Founded last year, Projected Picture Works is an independent production company focused on developing and producing feature films and series. The company’s first project is the drama Black Flies, in which Penn stars alongside Katherine Waterston, Tye Sheridan, Michael Pitt, Mike Tyson, Raquel Nave and more.

Mill House Motion Pictures was founded by Foley and Rosenthal in 2017. Together with Paperclip Ltd, the company has produced the 2018 SXSW Audience Award Winner All Square, starring Michael Kelly, Pamela Adlon and Josh Lucas; as well as the Magnolia-released John Hyams thriller Alone, starring Jules Wilcox and Marc Menchaca. Foley and Rosenthal also served as exec producers on the Jake Scott-directed American Woman, starring Sienna Miller.

Projected Picture Works is represented by CAA and attorney Lawrence I. Weinberg; Mill House Motion Pictures by attorney Mark A. Johnson of Behr Abramson Levy Johnson.

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