Hot Package: John Boyega, Payman Maadi Star In Gavin Hood-Directed eOne Drama ‘The Test’

EXCLUSIVE: Entertainment One is soon taking out a package, an adaptation of the Sylvain Neuvel novella The Test. John Boyega and Payman Maadi star in the Gavin Hood-drama about a soft-spoken immigrant (Maadi) taking a citizen evaluation test, and a brilliant young behavioral psychologist (Boyega) supervising “the test” confront a terrorist group lead by a far-right fanatic. Hood, who directed Tsotsi and more recently the tense drone drama Eye In The Sky and Official Secrets. He wrote the script. Erwin Stoff will produce with Zev Foreman and Ilda Diffley overseeing for eOne.

The film is a contained thriller, like many films being assembled to shoot during the pandemic. It’s a two-hander and the hope is to secure this as the next slot for Boyega, who makes a strong turn in the upcoming Red, White and Blue, a segment of the Steve McQueen-directed anthology Small Axe that will make its debut at the New York Film Festival. Maadi starred in the Oscar-winning A Separation, as well as Westworld, The Night of and 6 Underground.

Hood said the pic was “a heart-pounding psychological thriller, set in an authoritarian near-future that grabbed me by the throat and left me reeling.”

Boyega is repped by The Identity Agency Group and Sloane, Offer; Maadi is Buchwald and Rain Management Group, Hood is WME and Myman Greenspan. Neuvel, whose previous novels include Sleeping Giants, Waking Gods, and Only Human, is represented by CAA and The Gernert Company.

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