EXCLUSIVE: Natalia Leite has signed on to direct the feature adaptation of Last Night in Montreal, a novel by Emily St. John Mandel, the internationally bestselling author of Station Eleven, The Glass Hotel and Sea of Tranquility. The screenplay was adapted by Mandel together with Semi Chellas. The film is being produced by Simon Faber through his Taiga Pictures banner, with Mandel and Chellas serving as executive producers.
“Last Night in Montreal had me gasping for air at times,” said Leite. “It’s gripping, intoxicating, and full of surprises as it unravels a central mystery and breaks the reality of its protagonist. I’m thrilled to direct this neo-noir mystery/thriller, so deeply rooted in humanity, from the minds of two powerful writers.
Last Night in Montreal follows Ali, whose life unravels when his girlfriend Lilia disappears without warning from their Brooklyn life on the night he plans to propose. Desperate to understand — and to protect her if he can — he follows the trail to Montreal, uncovering the truth of her past, and finding himself entangled in a dangerous mystery spearheaded by an elusive woman named Mickie.
“Emily’s novel is a haunting meditation on the unseen wounds people carry beneath the surface, especially the scars of child abuse and abandonment, and the ways those wounds echo through their lives,” said Faber. “With Natalia’s distinct vision and Emily and Semi’s extraordinary script, I am so excited about the team we are continuing to assemble around the adaptation of this very special piece of material.”
Leite most recently directed several episodes of Hulu’s The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, starring Grace Van Patten and Sharon Horgan, created by KJ Steinberg, executive produced by Warren Littlefield and Monica Lewinsky. She has also directed a number of episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale, and also served as co-executive producer and director on the Hulu series Black Cake, created by Marisa Jo Cerar, executive produced by Oprah Winfrey, based on the New York Times bestselling book.
Her micro-budget indie feature, M.F.A., a psychological thriller starring Francesca Eastwood, premiered at SXSW 2017 where it was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize. She is currently filming the Netflix mini-series, Age Of Innocence, based on the Edith Warton novel.
Chellas is best known as a writer/producer on Mad Men, where she was nominated for six Emmys and ran the writers’ room. She is currently an EP on AMC’s forthcoming The Audacity and in development on projects at Amazon and A24.
Mandel new novel Exit Party will be published by Knopf in September 2026. Her previous novel, Sea of Tranquility, was a New York Times bestseller, Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award, a nominee for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence, one of the best books of the year according to The New York Times, NPR, Washington Post, and others, and was selected by President Obama for his summer reading list. Her previous novels include The Glass Hotel, and Station Eleven, which was shortlisted for the National Book Award and a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and was recently named one of the Best 100 Novels of the 21st Century by The New York Times. The novel was adapted into the Emmy-nominated 10-episode miniseries of the same name on HBO Max. Mandel was born on Vancouver Island, Canada, and currently resides in New York City
Taiga Pictures was founded in 2022 by Faber, a former partner at WME. The company builds on a foundation shaped by years of creative collaboration with filmmakers, actors, and musicians including Destin Daniel Cretton, Chloé Zhao, Adam Sandler, and Pharrell Williams.
