Vanessa Marano, a prolific actress known for her starring and guest roles in numerous notable television series throughout the 2000s, will produce and star in the wedding party horror comedy “Ring Leader.”

Marano is producing the film through his American production company Calabrian Rhode, behind the 2022 Netflix original romantic comedy “The Royal Treatment,” which hit the streamer’s number one spot worldwide upon its release.

British Columbia-based director Jason Lapeyre is co-producing through his Osaka Sunset Pictures banner. The pair will attend the Fantasia Film Festival’s Frontières Co-Production Market, where they will present the project to genre buyers and the industry at their main event on July 22.

“Our goal is to exit the market with a partner that can help us complete our deficit financing goals,” Marano said. Variety. “We will be filming in British Columbia and the tax incentives coming from Canada allow us to make a commercially viable film on a realistic scale without sacrificing passion or vision.”

Marano, best known for her starring role in five seasons of the global television hit “Switched At Birth” (2011-2017), has been building her career on the other side of the camera for the past few years. She founded Calabrian Rhode in 2018 with her mother and younger sister, respectively, Primetime Emmy consultant for HBO Ellen Marano and singer, producer and actress Laura Marano, who starred in “The Royal Treatment.”

Lapeyre’s genre films include “Cold Blooded,” winner of Fantasia’s 2012 Best Canadian Film Audience Award, and “I Declare War” (2013), which won several awards on its festival circuit.

Marano said she and Lapeyre, who became friends on set in 2013, had been talking about collaborating for years. More recently, he was speaking with Elana Dunkelman and her writing partner, Becky Shrimpton, about potential projects. “We all got together on a video call and started brainstorming an idea for one of the darkest and scariest horror scenarios of all time: a wedding party.

“Elana and Becky wrote an incredible script that really captures all the complicated feelings that come with being a bridesmaid: the absolutely wild fun and the chilling psychological torment. It’s ‘Bridesmaids’ meets ‘Send Help.'”

The Frontières Co-Production Market will take place from July 22 to 25 at the Montreal Fantasia Film Festival.