Arrow's Willa Holland Is Headlining Mortuary Assistant…

Summary

Willa Holland and Paul Sparks star in The Mortuary Assistant live-action adaptation.
Jeremy Kipp to direct, promising a scary movie that expands on the game's lore.
The release date is TBD, typically expected within 6 months to a year from casting.

There’s good news for The Mortuary Assistant’s fan base as the video game’s live-action adaptation has welcomed its main stars, one of whom should be familiar to viewers of the CW TV show Arrow.

The Mortuary Assistant is a video game-to-film adaptation based on Brian Clarke’s 2022 indie horror game of the same name. Courtesy of Epic Pictures under the Dread label, the film’s storyline maintains the eeriness of the source material: Rebecca Owens, a new Mortician at the haunted River Fields Mortuary who embalms corpses, gets haunted by the supernatural creatures that prowl her workplace. The Mortuary Assistant is a bestseller, selling over 400,000 units so far and generating nearly $1 million in revenue within its first month of release on Steam. Thus, it’s no surprise that, barely a month into its release, a live-action adaptation was announced with Jeremy Kipp set to direct from Tracee Beebe and Clark’s adapted screenplay.

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By Henry-Damian Justice

Willa Holland and Paul Sparks Will Star As Rebecca Owens and Raymond Delver in The Mortuary Assistant

Jeremy Kipp is Still Pegged as Director

An exclusive Deadline report reveals that 33-year-old Arrow star Willa Holland will play Rebecca, starring alongside 53-year-old Paul Sparks (from House of Cards), who plays Raymond Delver, her mortician boss and mentor. Kipp promises a movie that would not only expand on the game's lore and focus on the dread of the game familiar with players, but one that “will be scary as hell.” Creator Clarke also approves of the director—calling him “insanely skilled” and the collaboration one of the “highlights” of his career—as well as Willa and Paul.

Although Willa has previously starred in over a dozen roles in the course of her twenty-year career –such as Straw Dogs and A Summer in Genoa, she is bound to be remembered by her Thea Queen –sister of the DC billionaire vigilante Oliver Queen/Green Arrow – in the CW TV shows, Arrow and The Flash. Thankfully for Epic Pictures, she’s not a stranger to video game roles, having voiced the recurring character Aqua in the Kingdom Hearts franchise.

Sparks, meanwhile, has a more polished career than his co-star. The Oklahoma-native has featured in well-known series like House of Cards and Midnight Special, bagging an Emmy nomination for the former. He also knows his way behind the camera, helming Slapface, Don’t Pick Up, and Black Wake.

A release date is yet to be pegged for The Mortuary Assistant, but that doesn’t mean the world is clueless as to its potential release window. Traditionally in Hollywood, the period between casting and release is about one to two years; for low-budget horror movies like The Mortuary Assistant adaptation, it's even smaller at six months to a year. Regardless of which year it finally releases, The Mortuary Assistant players will belong to a rare group who have had their favorite games granted a live-action adaptation within such a short time. No one should expect Sonic the Hedgehog or A Minecraft Movie levels of hype or commercial success, though.

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