At the 2011 Sundance Film Festival writer/actress Brit Marling and writer/director Zal Batmanglij premiered Sound Of My Voice, a low-budget thriller centering on a strange cult. During the festival, Batmanglij was approached by a producer from the production company Scott Free, asking if the two were working on anything else. As it happened, Zal and Brit had a similar script recently finished, focusing on another close-knit group, this time about a band of eco-terrorists. Scott Free liked what they saw, went into production, and the resulting film, called The East, premiered at the this year’s Sundance Film Festival, a mere two years after that meeting.