Deadline is exclusively reporting that Millie Brady, Pollyanna McIntosh, Brenock O’Connor, Abby Fitz, Shonagh Marie, Diarmuid Noyes, Frank Blake and Akshay Kumar are set to star in the Irish horror thriller Double Blind, which is being produced by Los Angeles-based Epic Pictures Group.

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The film follows seven strangers taking part in a paid drug trial who become trapped in the lab after the side effects of the study escalate the situation into a nightmarish scenario – if they fall asleep, they die.

Patrick Ewald, CEO of Epic Pictures Group, released a statement saying:

Epic is thrilled to continue our partnership with Screen Ireland and bring Ian’s first feature film to the market. We have been working with Simon and Failsafe to develop a compelling and commercial script for buyers and are excited to see it come to life with Pollyanna and Millie as stars.

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Director Ian Hunt-Duffy also released a statement saying:

I’m delighted to be shooting Double Blind with the support of Epic and Screen Ireland. As a filmmaker I am deeply passionate about creating original, suspenseful, and intelligent genre cinema, and I believe that the hook of our story — fall asleep and you die — is so evocative and memorable. It takes something ordinary and innocent and makes it deadly. We have a fantastic ensemble cast led by Millie Brady and horror icon Pollyanna McIntosh, so I cannot wait for audiences to experience the tension, claustrophobia, and dread that we have in store.

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The project is written by Darach McGarrigle, with the film also marking Hunt-Duffy’s directorial feature debut, and Simon Doyle of Dublin-based production company, Failsafe Films, serving as producer. Production on Double Blind is currently underway in Ireland. Epic will also be handing sales at the upcoming Cannes Marche du Film.