Highland Film Group has announced that Golden Globe and Emmy nominated Dennis Quaid (A Dog’s Journey, upcoming Midway) and Madalen Mills (Jingle Jangle) have joined previously announced Academy Award nominated Queen Latifah (Girl’s Trip, “Star”) in Ray Giarratana’s (Godzilla: King of the Monsters, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum) The Tiger Rising. Giarratana adapted the script from Kate DiCamillo’s 2001 New York Times Bestselling children’s book of the same name. GG Filmz’s Deborah Giarratana and Streamline Global’s Ryan Smith are producing with Queen Latifah, Allen Cheney and Christophe Suchet executive producing. Highland Film Group is handling worldwide sales, which will launch at the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival.
After starting a new life in rural Florida at the Kentucky Star Motel, reserved 12-year-old Rob lets his imagination run wild, a contrast to his life as a bullied boy who has just lost his mother. One day, his reality is met with something more whimsical than his own mind can ever desire: a full-grown Bengal tiger hidden in the woods and held captive by the mean-spirited motel owner, Beauchamp (Dennis Quaid). With the help of the wise and mysterious maid Willie May (Queen Latifah) and the stubborn new girl in school, Sistine (Madalen Mills), Rob must decide whether to set the tiger free and in turn uncage his emotional grief.
Quaid recently starred in Universal Pictures’ A Dog’s Journey, the sequel to his 2017 box office hit A Dog’s Purpose. He has received Golden Globe nominations for his work in Focus Features’ Far from Heavenand HBO’s The Special Relationship, for which he also received an Emmy nomination. Quaid starred in such box office hits as I Can Only Imagine and What to Expect When You’re Expecting for Lionsgate,Footloose and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra for Paramount Pictures, The Day After Tomorrow for Twentieth Century Fox, Vantage Point for Columbia Pictures and Academy Award winning Traffic. He also starred in CBS’ “Vegas” and Amazon Studios’ “Fortitude” and is currently in post-production on Netflix’s “Merry Happy Whatever” and Lionsgate’s Midway.
Mills is currently in post-production and starring in David E. Talbert’s highly anticipated Netflix live-action movie musical Jingle Jangle (produced by John Legend and Mike Jackson), also starring Forest Whitaker, Keegan-Michael Key, Phylicia Rashad, Hugh Bonneville and Anika Noni Rose. She previously performed in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Tony-nominated School of Rock: The Musical on Broadway.
