Info in Movie News | Danielle Deadwyler is having a great run, with her next project being 40 Acres, a raw and powerful survival movie, which is set in a mostly ruined place after a war and a pandemic. The movie company recently published a video showing the movie's first scenes and thus, leaving the audience with a sad and emotionally intense trip. The movie officially hits theaters on July 2.
Deadwyler portrays the character Hailey Freeman, who is an emotionally tough military person that exists outside of the official system with her partner named Galen (Michael Greyeyes) and their kids. The family made a new beginning, settled at the farm far away from the city and led rural life by harvesting products, brought up their children without any deviations from the strict rules, and never stopped thinking about the safety of all the members of their family. However, the main character discovered that covering the primary needs of the family was not enough - it needed also mental serenity, which would come from him teaching the kids.
A more piteous sentiment can be seen from the moment Hailey’s son, Emanuel (played by Kataem O’Connor), enters his teen years and declares a revolt against the her ironclad control. To escape his rural upbringing, he secretly forays into the forest and gets to know a girl he encounters there. This small sign of disobedience can be the beginning of the family's disaster.
Through his first feature-length movie, 40 Acres, R.T. Thorne takes a grounded approach in post-apocalyptic storytelling. Thorne, who is known for directing TV shows such as Kung Fu and The Lake, co-wrote the script with Glenn Taylor. The cast of the movie also includes Milcania Diaz-Rojas (Share), Leenah Robinson (Monkey Beach), Haile Amare, and Jaeda LeBlanc.
Despite the premise of the story being the traditional dystopian future quest, 40 Acres is marked by its emotional depth. Deadwyler was quoted as confessing to her character's motivation in the EW article. She mentioned that that her character’s drive comes from trauma, love, and a frantic need to protect her family regardless of the cost.
"The babies' safety is what's inspiring her," she explained. "However, by doing so, she is also doing damage to children who are envisioning a world outside of themselves and the farm." The children’s dreams of freedom are in conflict with the struggle of Hailey, making for very genuine family tension.
Such an instant burst of that intensity appears the moment a threat from the outside, in the shape of bloodthirsty cannibals, appears at their doorstep. The way that the lead actress prepared for her character’s physically demanding fight scenes was impressive in its speed and accuracy - she came to the shooting time only two weeks after the beginning of the production. And while the action scenes were arranged like fierce choreography, it didn’t look artificial at all thanks to her former experience and the help of on-site fight experts.
“I will have a machete, I will have a gat,” Deadwyler said jokingly. “I’m going to hunt and gather on these folks.”
The family story isn’t just about Hailey either. Greyeyes’s character, Galen, offers his own grounding presence, using his Indigenous roots to teach their children about history and cultural legacy. “He’s a beautiful representation of a patriarch,” Deadwyler noted, “educating children about legacy, about Indigenous and Black culture.”
40 Acres caps off a massive year for Deadwyler. In 2024 alone, she starred in I Saw the TV Glow, earned a Critics’ Choice Award nomination for The Piano Lesson, and broke Netflix records in the action-thriller Carry-On opposite Jason Bateman and Taron Egerton. She also led the eerie Blumhouse release The Woman in the Yard, playing a mother haunted by a silent stranger.
Next, she’ll portray Zelma Redding in the biopic Otis & Zelma, alongside John Boyega. But first, audiences will see her as Hailey Freeman, a fierce mother trying to hold her family together as the world around them crumbles.
40 Acres opens in theaters July 2. Combining brutal action, excellent performances, and themes containing legacy, survival, and sacrifice, it has the potential to be one of the most talked-about movies of the summer.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
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