The Oscar wining actor, currently earning rave reviews for his performance in The Master, will direct the Depression Era ghost story for Likely Story and Mandalay Pictures.

Ezekiel Moss centres on a young boy with a vivid imagination who befriends a mysterious drifter. Keith Bunin wrote the Black List screenplay, as he did on Horns for Red Granite and Mandalay Pictures.

Likely Story and Mandalay Pictures are producing in association with Hoffman’s Cooper’s Town Productions. Bregman and Schulman will produce alongside Likely Story’s Stefanie Azpiazu, Adam Stone of Mandalay Pictures and Hoffman’s business partner Emily Ziff of Cooper’s Town.

Hoffman previously directed Jack Goes Boating and is currently shooting The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. Apart from The Master his year-end starring roles include A Late Quartet.

Hoffman is represented by attorney Robert Marshall at Greenberg, Glusker. Rowena Arguelles at CAA and Alex Lerner at Kaplan/Perrone represent Bunin.