Avalon Studios, Umbrella Entertainment and Liz Mullane have boarded Elizabeth ‘Biz’ Crummett’s “Delia’s Ghost,” further adding momentum to the movie project which won a prestigious Frontières FanPitch Best Feature Pitch Award at 2024’s Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival.
Billed as an elevated supernatural drama with horror DNA, “Delia’s Ghost” is now set to be presented at this week’s Frontières Market which runs parallel to Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival.
Avalon Studios, a production facility at Wellington, New Zealand, will serve as a co-producer and investor. Titles filmed at Avalon include “Mortal Engines” and Denis Villeneuve’s “Blade Runner 2045.”
Umbrella, a mainstay of local production, has signed a letter of intent for distribution in Australia and New Zealand.
Meanwhile, Liz Mullane, casting director, New Zealand on “Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit,” has joined “Delia’s Ghost” as its casting director.
Co-written by Crummett, “Delia’s Ghost” is set up at Be Hope Films, headed by Belindalee Hope who produced “The American,” starring Talia Ryder and Diane Kruger, a Deauville 2023 closing night selection, and TV series “Madam,” with Rachel Griffiths, which won at the 2024 Monte Carlo TV Festival and AsianAcademy TV Awards.
A redemption tale, “Delia’s Ghost” turns on Eddy, the pissed-off ghost of a 1979 punk, who is stuck in the house where he died – angry, forgotten, and spiralling in a death loop.
Then 10-year-old Cordelia moves into the house. She sees ghosts, doesn’t scare easy, and if she has to, she’ll burn their hauntings to the ground with her backpack of lighters.
She asks Eddy’s help, however, to battle her Headmaster Barlow, a soul-ensnaring spectre who still rules the school he founded over a century ago, monstrously powered by the souls of his captive ghost children.
As her no-bullshit mother Molly fights to pull her back from the edge, Cordelia takes matters into her own hands. To free the ghost children, she’ll risk everything – even herself, the synopsis ends.
At the heart of the tale is the bonding of Eddy and Cordelia, and Eddy’s transformation from poltergeist to her guardian angel as his existence finds the purpose it never had when he was alive.
“It’s a story about loss, limbo and the power of connection – told through the unexpected bond between Cordelia, an odd little outcast, and Eddy, a bitter punk ghost trapped in purgatory. Their friendship is the film’s heartbeat, inverted, touching, funny, and ultimately about redemption,” said Crummett.
“At its core, ‘Delia’s Ghost’ is about clawing your way back to hope, even when the world has given up on you – even when you have given up on yourself,” added Hope. “In a time when everything feels broken, it’s a deeply human story about transformation through connection. We don’t heal in isolation. We evolve together – even ghosts.”
Crummett’s original horror feature film script “Pantomime” was put into development by Blumhouse Pictures in 2018 under the late, executive producer Rae Roberts. Her 2023 short “The Understudy” world-premiered at Los Angeles’ Grand Chinese Theater and was selected to screen at a dozen international film festivals around the world including Screamfest LA, New York City Horror Fest and San Diego Comic-Con.
“Delia’s Ghost” is also written by Hamish Brown, whose credits include¡ Pantomime, The Understudy and original animated series “Omega Joe,” selected to premiere-exhibit at the Asian Animation Summit in South Korea.
Prep begins March 2026, with principal photography slated for April–May 2026 in Wellington, New Zealand. Mullane was casting director on Peter Jackson’s “Heavenly Creatures,” Kate Winslet’s breakout movie. Casting is now underway as Mullane conducts a broad search for the two leads of “Delia’s Ghost.”
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