Nicholas Hoult to lead UK dark-comedy, distributed in UK by StudioCanal.

UK Britpop dark-comedy Kill Your Friends, starring Nicholas Hoult, is due to get underway in the UK next week.

Hoult will star as an A&R man called Stelfox working at the height of the Britpop music craze who goes to extreme lengths in order to find his next hit.

Actor-writer Jim Piddock (Family Tree), the regular collaborator of Christopher Guest, has been cast as the managing director of the record label Stelfox works for.

Deadline Hollywood first broke the news of Piddock’s attachment, which has subsequently been confirmed by the production.

Additional cast is due to be announced next week.

Holy Flying Circus and Black Mirror director Owen Harris makes his feature debut on John Niven’s adaptation of his own cult novel.

Producers are Gregor Cameron of World’s End Productions, Will Clarke of Altitude Film Entertainment and Len Blavatnik of AI Film.

Altitude handles sales with StudioCanal on board for UK distribution. UTA is co-representing North American rights with Altitude.

Executives include StudioCanal’s Danny Perkins, a longtime champion of the project, Altitude’s Andy Mayson and Mike Runagall and Aviv Giladi of Al Film. Ben Giladi is associate producer.

Hoult will next appear in X-Men: Days Of Future Past.