Jonathan Bailey and Natalie Portman Start Shoot on Cycling Thriller Pumping Black
Cameras are rolling in the French Alps on Pumping Black, the professional cycling thriller starring Jonathan Bailey and Natalie Portman, Variety reported on 14 October.
The shoot is now under way on location. It is scheduled to run until early December.
The story lives inside elite road racing. Bailey plays Taylor Mace, a 35-year-old rider who senses the sport moving past him. He is taken under the wing of Andrea Lathe, a doctor played by Portman, in a relationship that pulls the film into thriller territory.
Mimi Cave directs from a screenplay by Haley Hope Bartels. Cave is known for thriller and horror work, while Bartels wrote the script that drew the lead pair to the project.
The wider ensemble has now been confirmed. Daniel Quinn-Toye, Lucas Lynggaard Tønnesen, Arieh Worthalter and Tony Hale have joined the cast, alongside Lukas Gage and Alex Akpobome.
Behind the camera, the producing team spans both sides of the Atlantic. Producers include Stacey Sher for Shiny Penny, Portman and Sophie Mas for MountainA, and Cave and Sébastien Raybaud for Anton Studios.
Anton Studios is fully financing the film, meaning it is putting up the production money. It is also handling worldwide sales, the business of selling distribution rights country by country, with CAA co-representing the United States.
What makes this stand out is how early buyers circled it. The project sold to Amazon in a Cannes deal described as the first big deal of this year's market, Deadline reported on 17 May. Local preparations were visible in August, when cyclist extras were sought for the shoot in the region, according to Le Dauphiné Libéré.
