Santa Fe, NM - New Mexico Film Office Director Nick Maniatis announced today that the independent feature, "Woman Walks Ahead," financed and produced by Black Bicycle Entertainment and Bedford Falls in association with Potboiler, has begun principal photography in Santa Fe, Pecos and Albuquerque. Lipsync is co-financing post production. Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz are producing under their Bedford Falls Company with Black Bicycle Entertainment's Erika Olde, Rick Solomon and Potboiler's Andrea Calderwood; Susan Kirr is executive producing. CAA is handling the domestic rights while prolific entertainment studio IM Global is selling international rights.

"We're honored that the production team chose this area for their project, which carries particular cultural and historic significance," said Santa Fe County Manager Katherine Miller. "We're especially excited that as we head into fall this maintains the momentum of a tremendous summer of production throughout the entire Santa Fe region and brings millions of dollars and hundreds of jobs to the local economy."

The production will employ approximately 150 New Mexico crew members, 15 New Mexico principal actors and 1000 New Mexico background talent.

Michael Greyeyes ("The New World," "Passchendaele"), Sam Rockwell ("Moon," "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind"), Ciaran Hinds ("Silence," "Bleed for This," "Munich"), Chaske Spencer ("The Twilight Saga," Cinemax's "Banshee") and Bill Camp ("The Night Of," "Loving") have joined the cast of Susanna White's ("Our Kind of Traitor," "Generation Kill," "Parade's End") "Woman Walks Ahead" which stars Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain ("The Martian," "Zero Dark Thirty," "The Help").

"Woman Walks Ahead" is the story of Catherine Weldon, a portrait painter from 1890's Brooklyn, who travels to Dakota to paint a portrait of Sitting Bull, and becomes embroiled in the Lakota peoples' struggle over the rights to their land. The film is based on a script by Academy Award nominee Steven Knight ("Eastern Promises," "Dirty Pretty Things," "Locke").