‘Where’s My Husband’ hitmaker Raye ready for Hollywood with first-ever film: Details inside
Raye is set to make her acting debut in a new London-based crime drama called Lineage.
The 28-year award-winning singer will be joined on screen with Isabelle Huppert in the upcoming film from French director Yann Demange, known for projects including Top Boy.
The film is described as a modern crime drama set in multicultural London. A man named Tariq is released from prison and seen trying to reconnect with his son and rebuild his life.
Things become complicated again when Tariq is pulled back into London’s criminal world after his brother asks for help. The story also focuses on their powerful mother, who is described as a crime boss. The screenplay is being written by Enda Walsh, known for films like Small Things Like These.
Alongside Raye and Huppert, actors Dali Benssalah and Adam Bessa are also part of the cast, Variety reported.
Details about Raye’s character have not yet been revealed. The movie also does not currently have an official release date.
Demange described the project as personal to him and called it a “love letter” to the London he grew up in.
“Lineage is a homecoming for me in many ways. [It has] characters I know very well at the centre of the story, including a formidable crime boss matriarch,” said Demange, who called it a “love love letter to the London I grew up in and love”.
He continued, “It’s important to me that the film both honours and delivers on the crime genre in an exciting and fresh way, whilst simultaneously exploring the complications of family and the possibility of transcending one’s beginnings”.
He said he wanted the movie to feel fresh and exciting while also focusing on family relationships and emotional struggles.
Producer Thomas Benski also praised the project as ambitious and cinematic. “Lineage is bold, filmmaker-driven cinema with true artistic ambition and global commercial appeal,” said producer Thomas Benski, who dubbed Demange a “singular cinematic voice and one of the most distinctive filmmakers of his generation”.
