EXCLUSIVE: Lionsgate has signed Sydney Sweeney and is in final negotiations with Amanda Seyfried to star in the Hidden Pictures thriller. The housemaidwith the studio hiring Paul Feig as director. The screenplay was written by Rebecca Sonnenshine and is based on the best-selling novel by Freida McFadden.

Hidden Pictures’ Todd Lieberman will produce and the company’s Carly Kleinbart Elter will oversee the project. Feigco’s Feig and Laura Fischer also produce. Sweeney and Seyfried will serve as executive producers alongside Alex Young and McFadden.

In the film, Sweeney will play Millie, a struggling woman who is relieved to start over as a housemaid for Nina (Seyfried) and Andrew, an upscale, wealthy couple. She soon learns that the family’s secrets are far more dangerous than her own.

“I’m thrilled to have it The housemaid Join our upcoming slate,” said Adam Fogelson, Chairman of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group. “A great filmmaker and a great cast with a great script from a great book is a great place to start. My experience working with Paul and Amanda so far has been nothing short of spectacular and Sydney is as talented and compelling as can be.”

The novel has been on the New York Times bestseller list for more than a year, 75 weeks or more, and Amazon’s bestseller list for 98 weeks or more. It also has a record-breaking half billion pages read on Kindle and is the second most read title on Kindle’s 10th anniversary, behind the Harry Potter series. It has sold more than 3.6 million copies in English and has been translated into 40 languages

“Part of the fun of the book was imagining the cast as we read it, and Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried are perfect as Millie and Nina – they’re both mysterious, nuanced and incredibly adept at becoming characters who “Don’t reveal everything right away,” said Erin Westerman, co-president of Lionsgate Motion Picture Group. “We are very pleased to bring her together with Paul Feig, who we have worked with A simple favor and its upcoming sequel, and has a proven track record of developing stories with dynamic female leads.”

Chelsea Kujawa and Erin Jones-Wesley oversee Lionsgate. Robert Melnik negotiated the contracts for the studio.

She is best known for her Emmy-nominated work on euphoria And The White Lotus, Sweeney was last seen in Sony’s box office hit Everyone but you opposite Glen Powell and the horror thriller Immaculate. Your film Eden recently premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. Sweeney is represented by Paradigm and Stewart Brookman and Hansen Jacobson Teller Hoberman.

Seyfried is coming off her Emmy-winning role on the Hulu series The dropout, where she played Elizabeth Holmes. She is represented by Innovative and Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz.

Feig just shot and produced the Amazon film Jackpot!a global success as it remained #1 worldwide on Amazon for four consecutive weeks. His next film as director and producer (Feigco) will be released in spring 2025 for Amazon and Lionsgate A simple favor 2with Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick also returning for the sequel to the 2018 original. He is represented by CAA and Sloane, Offer, Weber, Dern.

McFadden is represented by Christina Hogrebe of Jane Rotrosen Agency, Angela Cheng Caplan of Cheng Caplan Company and Allison Binder of Goodman Genow Schenkman Smelkinson + Christopher. Sonnenshine is represented by Circle Management + Production and UTA.