‘Enola Holmes’ Star Susan Wokoma, ‘Harry Potter’ Alum Jessie Cave to Lead ‘Curse in a Frame,’ Inspired by Viral True Story About ‘Haunted’ Painting (EXCLUSIVE)

A real-life story about a supposedly cursed painting has inspired an upcoming U.K. feature that has recently wrapped filming in the British seaside town of Hastings.

“Curse in a Frame” — from New State Pictures and the feature debut of writer-director Maria Pawlikowska — is being led by Susan Wokoma, best known for “Enola Holmes” and soon starring in Greta Gerwig’s upcoming “Narnia,” Jessie Cave, who famously played Lavender Brown in the “Harry Potter” franchise (and marking her return to film for the first time in almost a decade), and newcomer Velvet Brown (“Troubleshooting”). Kaja Chan (“Split Fiction”) Michael Kinsey (“Three Day Millionaire”) and Michael Brandon (“Dempsey and Makepeace”) also star.

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Blending comedy, horror and satire, the film takes its cue from a story that went viral in 2023 about a portrait of a young girl discovered in a Hasting charity shop and was “bought twice and returned twice after having ruined the lives of its owners.” One of the owners told U.K. TV that she believed it was “haunted,” with strange events happening to her — and her mother — soon after she bought it.

Set against the local folklore and eerie coastal atmosphere of Hastings, “Curse in a Frame” takes the story and adapts it into what the filmmakers describe as a “sharp contemporary feature about belief, ambition, friendship — and the chaos that unfolds when a local story becomes an international obsession.”

“What drew us to ‘Curse in a Frame’ was its originality and the fact that the story already arrived in the culture with its own mythology,” said producer Ana Emdin. “It was funny, unsettling, and very contagious. Working with Maria Pawlikowska, whose voice as a filmmaker is so prodigious, we were able to build that initial spark into something bolder, stranger and far more expansive. And it was mind-blowing to see our exceptional cast elevate the story even further.”

Added producer Yan Fisher: “What makes ‘Curse in a Frame’ so exciting is that it feels both specific and highly exportable. It is rooted in a very British world, but the premise is instantly accessible and the tone is bold, fresh and entertaining. It is exactly the kind of original genre film that can cut through internationally.”

Directed by Pawlikowska from a script she co-wrote with Tom Woffenden, “Curse in a Frame” is being produced by U.K. production company New State Pictures, led by Emdin and Fisher, alongside Invisible String Pictures.

“I was interested in the ‘crazy but true’ premise of Curse in a Frame for its potential to mix tones, genre, formats — in a way that feels very much of the moment,” said Pawlikowska. “We journey with these lovable, contemporary characters (played by our extraordinary ensemble cast) in this mysterious, mythological setting, and it was this clash of the modern and the ancient that got me excited, that seemed to allow for a morality tale to unfold – of friendship, ambition, belief, karma.”

“Curse in a Frame” is now in post-production.