Dennis Quaid and newcomer Madalen Mills are set to co-star opposite Queen Latifahin The Tiger Rising**, a film adaptation to Kate DiCamillo’s 2001 New York Times Bestselling children’s book. The pic will be presented at the Toronto Film Festival via Highland Film Group, who is managing worldwide sales.**

Ray Giarratana is directing the piece which follows reserved 12-year-old Rob who, after starting a new life in rural Florida at the Kentucky Star Motel, lets his imagination run wild, a contrast to his life as a bullied boy who has just lost his mother. One day, his reality is met with something more whimsical than his own mind can ever desire: a full-grown Bengal tiger hidden in the woods and held captive by the mean-spirited motel owner, Beauchamp (Quaid). With the help of the wise and mysterious maid Willie May (Latifah) and the stubborn new girl in school, Sistine (Mills), Rob must decide whether to set the tiger free and in turn uncage his emotional grief.

Producers are GG Filmz’s Deborah Giarratana and Streamline Global’s Ryan Smith, while Queen Latifah, Allen Cheney and Christophe Suchet serve as executive producers.

Quaid, repped by WME, was most recently seen on the big screen in Universal Pictures’ A Dog’s Journey and Sony’s The Intruder. He has forthcoming the Netflix series Merry Happy Whatever and Lionsgate’s Midway.

Mills, who performed in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Tony-nominated School of Rock: The Musical on Broadway, will appear in David E. Talbert’s Netflix live-action movie musical Jingle Jangle, with Forest Whitaker, Keegan-Michael Key, Phylicia Rashad. She is repped by Abrams Artists Agency.