Filming started locally Thursday on Bones And All, described as "a coming-of-age horror story" about a young woman who "has the urge to kill and eat the people that love her," according to the Hollywood Reporter.
It's the first film shot in the United States by Italian director Luca Guadagnino, who was nominated for an Academy Award in 2017 for Call Me By Your Name.
Call Me By Your Name star Timothée Chalamet leads the cast along with Taylor Russell (Lost In Space) and Oscar-winner Mark Rylance.
"Our local crews are back to work in Cincinnati on feature films and we couldn't be happier," said Kristen Schlotman, Film Cincinnati executive director, in the announcement Friday. "The film will shoot through mid-July and put hundreds of locals to work, not to mention book thousands of hotel rooms while on location. The impact will be significant."
Deadline posted an interview with Guadagnino done on his lunch break Thursday, the first day of shooting "in the Ohio Tri-State area."
The screenplay was adapted from Camille DeAngelis' novel, Bones & All, by Miami University graduate David Kajganich. Guadagnino and Kajganich are long-time collaborators, working together on Suspiria and A Bigger Splash.
The novel is about how a young woman named Maren Yearly goes on a cross-country trip searching "for the father she's never met in an attempt to understand why she has the urge to kill and eat the people that love her," according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Film Cincinnati described the plot as "a story of first love between Maren, a young woman learning how to survive on the margins of society, and Lee, an intense and disenfranchised drifter, as they meet and join together for a thousand-mile odyssey which takes them through the back roads, hidden passages, and trap doors of Ronald Reagan's America. But despite their best efforts, all roads lead back to their terrifying pasts and to a final stand, which will determine whether their love can survive their otherness."
Russell, who plays Maren, also has appeared in Waves, Escape Room, Falling Skies and Emily Owens M.D.
Chalamet, cast as Lee, has also been seen in Little Women, Lady Bird, Beautiful Boy, Homeland, Law & Order and Royal Pains. He recently completed Dune, and has agreed to star as Willy Wonka in the upcoming Wonka.
Rylance, who portrayed attorney William Kuntsler in The Trail of the Chicago Seven, won the best supporting actor Oscar for Steven Spielberg's Bridge Of Spies in 2016.
Bones and All also stars André Holland (Selma, American Horror story, 42, Moonlight); Jessica Harper (Suspiria, 7th Heaven, Minority Report, Ally McBeal,); Michael Stuhlbarg (Call Me By Your Name, The Shape of Water, Boardwalk Empire); Francesca Scorsese (HBO's We Are Who We Are, The Aviator); and director-producer David Gorden-Green (Halloween, Joe, George Washington).
Film Cincinnati said the project is fully financed by Italian companies: The Apartment Pictures (a Fremantle Company), Memo, 3 Marys, Tender Stories, Adler, Elafood, Elafilm, Manila, Serfis and Wise.
"This will be Guadagnino's first film to be made on American soil and we're honored to have it right here in our region," Schlotman said.
