Rising filmmaker Niki Byrne has signed with Underground Management.
The move comes as Byrne prepares for the Toronto International Film Festival bow of The Julia Set, which stars One Battle After Another breakout Chase Infiniti, along with Jason Isaacs and Gillian Anderson.
The feature, a coming of age drama set in the world of competitive mathematics and academia, is generating interest from potential buyers, though it is not expected to be screened for them until the fest. Byrne also is putting together her next film, which she wrote and is being kept under wraps.
Byrne is a California native who attended Boston University, studying history and political science, as well as astrophysics. While writing spec scripts to get her filmmaking career off the ground, she held various jobs, including a communications role at 20th Century Fox before the Disney acquisition in 2019.
Now, she finds herself at a career turning point, with one of the more intriguing sales titles going into TIFF.
A year ago, the fest helped launch fellow Underground client Curry Barker, whose Obsession was acquired by Focus and later became a box office juggernaut.
The Julia Set is produced by Midsommar‘s Jeffrey Penman, The Gotham Group’s Ellen Goldsmith-Vein and Maze Runner‘s Lee Stollman. Also producing are Anderson, Nick Scherma, Tayler Haynes, Andrey Epifanov and Eleonora Granata-Jenkinson.
In addition to Underground’s Aaron Folbe, Byrne continues to be repped by attorneys Hirsch Wallerstein.