Macey and Savanna may not have much. But they’ve got the perfect plan. With a ramshackle café teeter-tottering on the brink of extinction and their lives going nowhere fast, the two sisters conspire to win over their terminally ill Aunt Hilda - the family’s overbearing, curmudgeonly matriarch - in the hopes of becoming the beneficiaries of her vast estate. But as Macey and Savanna soon discover, there may be other relatives who have the exact same idea.

Directed by Dean Craig, The Estate stars Toni Collette, Anna Faris, Kathleen Turner, David Duchovny, Rosemarie DeWitt, Ron Livingston and Keyla Monterroso Mejia.

“I remember the first time reading it, crying with laughter – it was wet your pants funny,” says Toni Collette, who was the first cast member to  join The Estate.

What kept her in stitches during the course of filming in New Orleans, however, was Craig’s A-list ensemble – “the most talented, beautiful, hilarious group of people,” and the unexpected alchemy which ensued (fostered by the director’s openness to improvisation), that took things to the next level. “They’re all brilliant in their own right,” says Collette. “But collectively, something just seemed to magically happen.”

“Often, I’d be on the brink of forgetting my line, because I would be watching David Duchovny do something absolutely inappropriate and hysterical. We have Toni who is serenely thoughtful and beautiful. Rosemarie [DeWitt] and Ron [Livingston] playing James and Beatrice, who are incredibly subtle performers. And then Kathleen Turner who I had the honor of working with on Mom… It was just what I hoped for, which was a learning experience where I got to play the most brazen character - and certainly the most childish character - I’ve played yet.” says Faris.

The Estate is now playing in cinemas, distributed by Prorom and Ro Image.