Sex Education star Asa Butterfield and Stranger Things‘ Natalia Dyer have signed on to co-star in All Fun and Games, a horror-thriller about a group of siblings who are pulled into a kids’ game with a demonic twist.
Anthony and Joe Russo’s production group AGBO will produce All Fun and Games together with producer/financier Anton (Greenland, The Night House), who will fully finance the project. Ari Costa and Eren Celeboglu will co-direct in their feature debut. The duo co-wrote the script based on an original spec from JJ Braider that AGBO acquired. Principal photography is set to begin in late March.
Anton is handling international sales and will introduce the project to buyers at next month’s European Film Market in Berlin. Anton and CAA Media Finance are co-representing domestic rights.
Anton’s Sebastien Raybaud and John Zois will produce All Fun and Games together with AGBO’s Kassee Whiting. Anthony and Joe Russo will executive producer together with AGBO’s Mike Larocca, Angela Russo-Otstot and Anton’s Holly Hubsher.
Dyer, who will reprise her star-making role as Nancy Wheeler in the fourth season of Netflix series Stranger Things this summer, recently appeared alongside Amanda Seyfried and James Norton in the Netflix feature Things Heard & Seen and played the lead in Karen Maine’s indie film, Yes, God, Yes, which premiered at South By Southwest in 2019.
Butterfield transitioned from childhood roles in indie features Son of Rambow (2007) and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008) to playing the lead in Martin Scorsese’s Hugo (2015) and Morgan Matthews’s A Brilliant Young Mind (2015). But the British actor is perhaps best-known to a global audience as Otis Milburn in the Netflix series Sex Education, which is currently in its third season.
All Fun and Games will be produced through AGBO’s indie-flavored “Gozie Agbo” banner, which focuses on up-and-coming filmmakers. AGBO has a growing slate of genre and horror titles, from Natalie Erika James’ debut Relic, which IFC Films released last year, and two upcoming A24 releases: Isaiah Saxon’s fantasy feature The Legend of Ochi and sci-adventure tale Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, from directing pair The Daniels (Swiss Army Man).
Ari Costa worked as the Russos’ assistant on Captain America: The Winter Soldier and was part of the 2nd unit crew on Avengers: Endgame and AGBO’s Netflix actioner Extraction.
“We are thrilled to be collaborating with Sebastian, John, and the entire Anton team on this visionary horror-thriller,” Anthony and Joe Russo said in a statement. “Through Gozie Agbo, we strive to mentor and cultivate daring new voices; Ari and Eren are the epitome of next-generation filmmakers. We’ve had the privilege of watching Ari grow in all facets of filmmaking through our work together over the years and, most recently, at AGBO. We are so proud to support him and Eren in their feature directorial debuts.”
Natalia Dyer is represented by WME, One Entertainment & Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner & Klein. Asa Butterfield is represented by Independent Talent Group, CAA & Felker Toczek Suddleson Abramson.
Source: Hollywood
