MarVista Entertainment Pacts with Rachael Leigh Cook

MarVista Entertainment has inked a multi-faceted, multiyear deal with actress and producer Rachael Leigh Cook (She’s All That, Perception) and her company, Ben’s Sister Productions.

MarVista and Ben’s Sister have already identified several projects that will involve Cook working both in front of and behind the camera. They will work on projects across a range of genres over the next few years.

Among the first projects in the new deal is There She Goes (w.t.), which will star Cook and is based loosely on her real-life experiences as a 90s icon. She will also serve as an executive producer of the film, which is written by Charles Hood and Seth Goldsmith.

Also on the upcoming slate is Rescuing Christmas (w.t.), a holiday-themed film about an anti-Christmas photographer who makes the mistake of wishing Christmas would disappear. Cook will star. Jim Head is serving as executive producer and Sarah Montana is writer.

Additional projects are in various stages of development, including My Italy (w.t.), which centers on a chef influencer who has built an image based on her Italian heritage and discovers that she is not, in fact, Italian, turning her world and her career upside down until a genealogist helps her find her true identity and true love in the process.

“As an actor who has spent the majority of my life in front of the camera, I am excited to embark on this new era exploring and creating projects with fresh backdrops, poignant backstories and big-hook concepts that feature new takes on classic tales to serve an audience who, like me, are passionate about feel-good content,” Cook said. “I am ecstatic to partner with a company that enables and trusts me to bring my audience to the stories I and so many care about. I feel grateful to be welcomed by Angie Day, David Massey, Hannah Pillemer, Tony Vassiliadis and the rest of the team of such an established, actor-friendly and forward-thinking company like MarVista. I am grateful to have this opportunity as one of the first actor-producers the company has formally partnered with, and I look forward to expanding my vision of what I can do and create.”

“We have long admired Rachael as an accomplished, versatile performer who possesses great skill and intuition in storytelling, developing projects that resonate with audiences everywhere,” said Hannah Pillemer, executive VP of creative affairs at MarVista. “This relationship with Rachael perfectly exemplifies MarVista’s long-standing Female Forward initiative supporting women filmmakers.”