First Look at New Nancy Drew Movie as Production Begins

Ellen DeGeneres‘ A Very Good Production, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, and Red 56 have begun principal photography on Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase, an all-new feature film starring Sophia Lillis (It) as the iconic titular character, Nancy Drew. Check out the full photo from the film in the gallery below!

The film focuses on Nancy Drew (Lillis), a smart high schooler with a penchant for keen observation and deduction, who stumbles upon the haunting of a local home. A bit of an outsider struggling to fit into her new surroundings, Nancy and her pals set out to solve the mystery, make new friends, and establish their place in the community.

Award-winning director Katt Shea (Poison Ivy) helms the film from a script by the screenwriting team of Nina Fiore and John Herrera (The Handmaid’s Tale, The Vampire Diaries). DeGeneres, Jeff Kleeman (The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) and Chip Diggins (A Walk in the Woods) are producers with Wendy S. Williams (The Fate of the Furious) executive producing.

Zoe Renee (The Quad) and Mackenzie Graham (Syfy’s The Purge) are featured as Nancy Drew’s core BFFs, George and Bess, respectively. Laura Slade Wiggins (Shameless) portrays Helen, a high school mean girl who reluctantly joins forces with Nancy to help solve the mystery. Sam Trammell (True Blood) plays Nancy’s father, Carson, with Linda Lavin (Alice) as Flora, the owner of the haunted house, and Andrea Anders (Joey, The Stepford Wives) starring as Nancy’s Aunt Hannah.

The cast also includes Jay DeVon Johnson (Vice Principals), Andrew Matthew Welch (Ma), Jon Briddell (The Resident), Josh Daugherty (We Were Soldiers), Evan Castelloe (Queen Sugar), and Jesse C. Boyd (Hap and Leonard).

The character of Nancy Drew was created by publisher Edward Stratemeyer to go along with his Hardy Boys book series. The books were written by a series of ghostwriters and published under the pen name Carolyn Keene. The character first appeared in 1930 and evolved over the years with the culture. Depending on the version of the story, Nancy Drew is either 16- or 18-years old and is an amateur detective. She is often helped by her best friends, cousins Bess Marvin and George Fayne, both of whom are women. It can be assumed that the friends of the author in the series are the people upon whom she bases Bess and George.

Production for Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase is based in Georgia, filming at specific locations in and around the city of Monroe. No release date has yet been set for the feature.