Melissa Leo Cast as Vengeful Mother in 'Leave Not One Alive'

East Hampton native and Academy Award winner Melissa Leo (The Fighter) has been cast as a grief-stricken mother in the independent revenge thriller Leave Not One Alive. Production has already begun with the crew filming in New York.

Leo, who also stars as Goldie Herschlag in Showtime’s I’m Dying Up Here, plays Lillian Cooper, a theater actress who receives the horrendous news that her son, played by Jake Weary (It Follows), has mysteriously died. An investigating officer, played by Michael Potts (The Wire), concludes the death is from an accidental overdose, but Lillian is unsatisfied with this determination and takes matters into her own hands. Her investigation leads to a surprising alliance with her son’s former drug dealer, played by Bella Thorne. During her journey to discover the truth, Lillian suffers hallucinations of past iconic characters she’s performed on stage, which serve as inner voices urging her to avenge her son’s death.

Along with Leo, Thorne, Weary and Potts, Kevin Corrigan (The Departed), Adrian Martinez (I feel Pretty) and Benedict Samuel—best known in the U.S. for his role as “Mad Hatter” Jervis Tetch on Gotham—also star in the film, though their roles have yet to be announced. Thorne gained prominence in the Disney Channel series Shake It Up and has appeared in films such as Blended with Adam Sandler and Sagaponack’s Drew Barrymore, as well as the upcoming comedy thriller Assassination Nation.

Jordan Galland, who won the Comedy Award at the 2010 Washington DC Independent Film Festival for Rosencrantz And Guildenstern are Undead, is the film’s writer and director.

While an exact release date has not been announced, Ace Showbiz reports its premiere sometime in 2019.

Leo’s recent film, The Equalizer 2, which hit theaters in July, is set for release on Blu-ray and DVD next month. In it, she plays Susan Plummer, a friend and colleague of former Marine and Defense Intelligence Agency spy Robert McCall (Denzel Washington), who is brutally murdered. Revenge and lots of creative killings using everyday objects and tools ensue.